abstract the results of the chemical investigations of the essential oils from the flowers, leaves, stems and rhizome of peucedanum officinale are presented. the essential oil contents were 1.21% (v/w) in flowers, 0.64% (v/w) in leaves, 0.08% (v/w) in stems and 0.24% (v/w) in rhizome. by gc and gc/ms analysis, in all four oils the total of 132 compounds was identified: 53 constituents (93.4% of total amount) in the oil obtained from the flowers, 70 (94.3% of total amount) in the oil from the leaves, 78 (87.8% of total amount) in the oil from the stems and 67 (95.9% of total amount) in the oil from rhizome. in all oils investigated, monoterpenes were the dominant class of constituents (73.9-83.7%), with hydrocarbons (65.6-81.6%) as the most abundant representatives. limonene, -pinene and sabinene were identified as the most important constituents in common for all four oils. in the oil from the flowers, leaves and stems, -pinene and myrcene were also abundant. however, the flower oil differed from the others by a significant quantity of -phellandrene.