the essential oil composition and headspace volatiles from the aerial parts of the genera notobubon and nanobubon are reported for the first time. eleven of the thirteen notobubon and two of the three nanobubon species were studied. oil yields obtained by hydro-distillation ranged from 0.1 to 3.6% of dry weight. forty-four compounds representing 63.8-96.8% of the total oil were identified from the essential oil of eight species of notobubon and one species of nanobubon by gc/ms-fid. p-cymene was present in all samples of notobubon but not detected in nanobubon. gc/gc-tof-ms headspace analysis of eleven species of notobubon showed -pinene (1-48%), -pinene (2-31%), p-cymene (1-41%), sabinene (1-27%), -thujene (1-22%), and in one species estragole (78-97%) as the main compounds, while in nanobubon myrcene (1-37%), limonene (13-30%), 3-methyl-2-methylene-butanenitrile (0-27%), sabinene (1-26%) and -pinene (1-25%) were identified as major constituents.