Abstract: OBJECTIVE To establish GC-MS fingerprints of essential oils of Ferula ferulaeoides for assessment and quality control of Ferula ferulaeoides. METHODS The essential oils of Ferula ferulaeoides from 8 habitats were extracted by steam distillation method and their chemical constituents were analyzed by GC-MS. Similarity evaluation system for chromatographic fingerprint of traditional Chinese medicine (Version 2004 A) published by the State Pharmacopeia Committee of China was employed for the representative standard fingerprint, and the similarity of each chromatogram of essential oils of Ferula ferulaeoides from different habitats was also calculated by the two methods. Hierarchical cluster analysis and principal component analysis were applied to investigating the test data. RESULTS The method on GC-MS fingerprints of essential oils of Ferula ferulaeoides was established and the GC-MS fingerprinting of essential oils of Ferula ferulaeoides, showing 12 characteristic peaks. The similarity of the GC-MS fingerprints from the 37 samples was over 0.90 and 44 samples were classified into two group. The classification result according to the similarity was consistent with the hierarchical cluster analysis, and the principal component analysis result showed that content of Guaiol was the most effective index in GC-MS fingerprinting of essential oils of Ferula ferulaeoides. CONCLUSION The method of GC-MS fingerprinting is simple, accurate with good reproducibility and can be used for the comprehensive quality evaluation of Ferula ferulaeoides.