abstract hymenocrater elegans bunge was collected from firoozkooh in northeast iran in july 2003. dried leaves of the plant were steam distilled in a kaiser-lang apparatus for 45 min. the oil was produced at the yield of 0.1% (based on dry weight). gc and gc/ms analysis of this oil revealed the presence of 33 compounds, among which germacrene d (10.2%), -caryophyllene (9.7%), -humulene (9.6%), -bourbonene (7.1%) and germacrene b (6.9%) were the major constituents.