abstract the essential oil from the leaves of a wild plant, artemisia ferganensis (compositae), growing in heshuo county of xinjiang province, china, was analyzed at the various growing stages (vegetative, budding and fowering stage). the content and composition of the oil at each stage were notably varied. twenty-eight compounds (> 0.1%) were identified as components by the analyses of gc and gc/ms. the main constituents were -thujone (37.0-54.8%), 1,8-cineole (5.7-10.4%), -thujone (8.6-10.7%), cis-chrysanthenyl acetate (7.2-23.5%), and sabinyl acetate (3.4-10.2%).