Abstract: Essential oil in flowers of Syringa oblata Lindl. at full-bloom stage was extracted by simultaneous distillation and solvent extraction (SDE). The yield of oil obtained is 0.079%. Sixty-four components are identified by GC-MS according to retention indices(RI), covering 95.79% of the total components, which are phenylethyl alcohol (16.12%), (E,E)-farnesene (13.43%), benzyl alcohol (6.24%), lilac aldehyde C (3.91%), cinnamyl alcohol (3.64%), lilac alcohol A (3.61%), 2-methoxy- 4-vinylphenol (3.38%), lilac aldehyde A (2.62%), indole (2.34%), benzyl benzoate (2.31%), lilac alcohol D (2.25%) and phenylacetaldehyde (2.03%). The isomers of lilac alcohol and of lilac aldehyde are the characteristic aroma components of flower of Syringa oblata Lindl.

Key words: Syringa oblata Lindl., essential oil, simultaneous distillation and solvent extraction(SDE), gas chromatog- raphy-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), retention indices (RI)