abstract an essential oil, which was obtained by water distillation from russowia sogdiana (bunge) b. fedtsch. flowers, was analyzed by gc and gc/ms. the main constituents were identified as limonene (15.9%), trans--bergamotene (5.6%), salvial-4(14)-en-1-one (3.8%), carvone (3.6%), p-cymene (3.6%), trans -carveol (3.2%). thirty-two components were separated and identified which accounted for over 62.1% of the total essential oil. the antimicrobial activity of r. sogdiana oil was studied using broth dilution test on seven bacterial strains, using mycelial growth test on three fungal strains. the oil exhibited a broad spectrum antibacterial activity against gram-positive (bacillussubtilis, staphylococcus aureus) and gram-negative bacteria (escherichia coli, erwinia carotovora ssp. carotovora, pseudomonas lachrymans, xanthomonas vesicatoria, agrobacterium tumefaciens) with minimum inhibitory concentration (mic) values ranging from 0.2 mg/ml to 0.8 mg/ml. the oil also showed an important antifungal activity against fruit pathogenic fungi glomerella cingulata, botryodiplodia theobromea and venturia pirina. maximum antifungal activity was observed against g. cingulata mycelial growth which percentage inhibition was 51.8% at concentration of 100 g/ml.