A process for recovering microbially produced IL-2 in a highly pure form from the cellular material of the microorganisms that produced it comprising: disrupting the cell membranes of the microorganisms; extracting the disruptate with a chaotropic agent, such as urea, that selectively extracts microbial proteins from the cellular material; solubilizing the IL-2 in the solid phase of the extraction, mixture with an aqueous solution of a solubilizing agent, such as SDS, containing a reducing agent; and separating the IL-2 from the resulting solution by an optional extraction with 2-butanol or 2-methyl-2-butanol followed by gel filtration chromatography, oxidizing the IL-2 and purifying the oxidized IL-2 by RP-HPLC.