the essential oils of tanacetum pinnatum boiss. a composite herbs growing wild in iran

background: the genus tanacetum (compositae) is represented by 26 species in the flora of iran, 12 of them are endemic. one report on the analysis of essential oil of tanacetum polycephalum boiss. species has been published. objective: aim of this study is to determine the chemical composition of the hydrodistilled oil of tanacetum pinnatum boiss. of iranian origin for the first time. methods: the essential oil of t. pinnatum obtained by hydrodistillation and analyzed by gc and gc/ms. results: the major constituents appeared to be camphor (23.2%), α-pinene (8.5%) and camphene (7.7%). conclusion: in t. pinnatum we identified 25 components representing 98.7%. it was rich in regard to monoterpene hydrocarbons (78.9%). the sesquiterpene fraction was relatively small, representing 19.8%.