In this paper, an Evolutionary Memetic Algorithm (EMA), which uses a local search intensity scheme to complement the global search capability of Evolutionary Algorithms (F-As), is proposed for rule extraction. Two schemes for local search are studied, namely EMA-mu GA, which uses a micro-Genetic Algorithm-based (mu GA) technique, and EMA-AIS, which is inspired by Artificial Immune System (AIS) and uses the clonal selection for cell proliferation. The evolutionary memetic algorithm is complemented with the use of a variable-length chromosome structure, which allows the flexibility to model the number of rules required In addition. advanced variation Operators are used to improve different aspects of the algorithm. Real world benchmarking problems are used to validate the performance of EMA and results from simulations show the proposed algorithm is effective.