Abstract
The essential oils of the aerial parts of cultivated and wild fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill) plants were obtained by hydrodistillation, examined by high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) and characterized by gas chromatography - mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The essential oils of the wild and cultivated fennel showed great differences in their chemical contents, cultivated plants showed higher percentages of pinenes, fenchone, estragol, myrcene and camphene while the wild plants showed much higher level of limonene.