abstract the dried aerial parts of pimpinella aurea dc., which belongs to apiaceae family and grows in central iran, were hydrodistilled to produce oils in the yield of 0.30% (v/w). the oils were analyzed by gc and gc/ms. twenty-six compounds were identified, representing 96.27% of the oils. the main components were -caryophyllene (13.6%), -bisabolene (12.2%), (e)--farnesene (10.4%) and -sesquiphellandrene (10.2%).