Bunium persicum Boiss. is an economically important medicinal and aromatic plant growing wild in arid and semiarid regions of Iran. The fruits of eight populations of B. persicum were collected from different regions in northeast of Iran. Essential oil of B. persicum was extracted by hydrodistillation and analyzed by GC-FID and GC/MS. The oils yields of dried fruits were found to be between 3.1 and 7.9% (v/w). In total, 19 compounds were identified that representing about 95.4-98.9% of the oil compositions. The major compounds (>5%) were γ-terpinene (29.2-40.1%), cuminic alcohol (16.4-28.4%), cumin aldehyde (9.1-18.9%), p-cymene (9.4-15.6%), safranal (3.4-7.9%) and limonene (3.7-6.4%). Monoterpene hydrocarbons were the main constituents in all populations. A hierarchical cluster analysis was done to put the chemical compositions of the essential oils from B. persicum fruit into perspective. The cluster analysis revealed at least five different groups and between these populations. The results of this experiment showed differences among the amount of oil yield, main and minor compounds in studied B. persicum populations.

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