Abstract: Pressurized Water Extraction (PWE) is a method for extracting materials from plants by exposing a plant sample to a pressurized liquid aqueous composition. The exposure may be performed statically, dynamically, or both. For example, the sample may be exposed to a liquid aqueous composition at a temperature of from about 0° C. to about 100° C. and a pressure between about 25 atm and about 1000 atm, more typically from about 50 atm to about 200 atm. Plant materials are selectively isolated in the aqueous compositions by this method more effectively than prior methods. Moreover, the present methods provide facile extraction of thermally labile compounds, such as bilobalides from Gingko leaves.