tThe enzyme-assisted extraction (EAE) of polysaccharides from the fruits of Hericium erinaceus was stud-ied. In this study, response surface methodology and the Box–Behnken design based on single-factor andorthogonal experiments were applied to optimize the EAE conditions. The optimal extraction conditionswere as follows: a pH of 5.71, a temperature of 52.03◦C and a time of 33.79 min. The optimal extractionconditions resulted in the highest H. erinaceus polysaccharides (HEP) yield, with a value 13.46 ± 0.37%,which represented an increase of 67.72% compared to hot water extraction (HWE). The polysaccharideswere characterized by FT-IR, SEM, CD, AFM, and GC. The results showed that HEP was composed of man-nose, glucose, xylose, and galactose in a molar ratio of 15.16:5.55:4.21:1. The functional groups of theH. erinaceus polysaccharides extracted by HWE and EAE were fundamentally identical but had apparentconformational changes.