By using single factor experiment and response surface methods, the effects of ethanol volume fraction, solid-liquid ratio, extraction temperature and time on extracting saponin from the leaves of Camellia nitidissima Chi were discussed, and the inhibitory effect of the extracts on pancreatic lipase was also studied. The optimal extraction conditons for saponin from C. nitidissima Chi were determined as follows: 59% ethanol, 1∶39 (g/mL) as solid-liquid ratio, extracting at 60 ℃ for 124 min. The yield of saponin was 4.82% under the optimized conditions, closing to the predicted result. The research results indicated that the saponin extracted with the mass concentration of 6 mg/mL (pH 7.5) at 37 ℃ for 30 min, had the highest inhibiting effect on pancreatic lipase, and the inhibition rate was 84.76%. The results revealed that the saponin from leaves of C. nitidissima Chi could effectively inhibit the activity of lipase and might have excellent effect of lowing blood lipid.