The objective of this paper was to propose a 5D combined chaotic system used for image encryption by scrambling and DNA encryption. The initial chaotic values were calculated with a set of equations. The chaotic sequences were used for pixel scrambling, bit scrambling, DNA encryption and DNA complementary function. The average of NPCR, UACI and entropy values of the 6 images used for testing were 99.61, 33.51 and 7.997 respectively. The correlation values obtained for the encrypted image were much lower than the corresponding original image. The histogram of the encrypted image was flat. Based on the theoretical results from the tests performed on the proposed system it can be concluded that the system is suited for practical applications, since it offers high security. © 2019 IEEE.