Artemisia dracunculus (tarragon) has been used orally as an antiepileptic remedy in Iranian folkloricmedicine. In the current study, the morphological variation and the essential oil composition from theaerial parts of the plant were evaluated. The results indicated significant differences among genotypesfor morphological traits and clustering based on these traits classified the genotypes into two clusters.The essential oil content ranged from 1.42 to 2.53 v/w. Analysis of the essential oil revealed the presenceof methyl chavicol (68.21–81.11%), limonene (7.18–16.73%), terpinolene (0.01–7.68%), (Z)--ocimene(0.89–4.99%), (E)--ocimene (0.81–4.52%), methyl eugenol (0.90–2.67%) and -pinene (0.43–1.91%) asthe main components. Variables related to leaf were found to be associated with all phytochemical com-positions, indicating a main role of leaf on production of these compounds. These data collectivelydemonstrated large phenotypic and chemical diversity among the selected genotypes which can beconsidered as a valuable gene pool for breeding programs.
