Commonly used methods for protein extraction from plant leaves, such as extraction with phenol or a combination of TCA and acetone, were ineffective for four tested cultivars of poplar. Moreover, multiple protocols for 2DE of the extracted proteins gave different results when protein profiles of relatively closely related plants were compared. Given that polycyclic compounds strongly hinder 2DE, we analyzed the impact of polyphenols and polysaccharides present in the plant tissues used for protein extraction, on the quality of 2DE protein profiles. Analysis of content of polyphenols and polysaccharides in leaves of poplar cultivars showed that even small differences in concentrations of analyzed metabolites accompany large differences between poplar cultivars when considering the susceptibility of samples to protein extraction for 2DE. High-quality 2DE results were correlated with decreased amounts of polyphenols. Additional analysis using MS/MS suggested that only levels of total phenolics affected the results of 2DE. Soluble total nonstructural carbohydrates also had a negative effect, but the level of starch was not important. Finally, we present an optimized method (OPTI) for extraction of proteins from poplar leaves, which enables reliable comparative analysis of four different poplar cultivars i.e. 'Eridano', 'Villafranca', 'NE-42' and 'Luisa Avanzo', which have not yet been used for the proteomic studies.