[Objective] This study was to explore the effect of three precursors on the accumulation of principal volatile oil constituents in tissue culture plantlets of Atractylodes lancea （Thunb.） DC. with the aim to provide references for the improvement of artificial cultivated A. lancea quality. [Method] Three precursors were added into the MS rooting medium for A. lancea tissue culture plantlets and the volatile oil was extracted by ultrasonication after cultured for several days. The content of atractylon, atractylol, β-eucalyptol and atractydin in the volatile oil were determined by using gas chromatography method. [Result] The addition of xylose, isoprene and tetrahydrofuran impacted the growth indicators, yield of volatile oil and relative percentage content of the four constituents of A. lancea tissue culture plantlets. In the 6 g/L xylose optimized medium, the atractylon and β-eucalyptol content reached up to 4.23% and 56.34%, respectively, 1.41% and 1.66% higher than the control; although the addition of isoprene into medium raised the atractylon content, the accumulation of total volatile oil was inhibited that it decreased by 23.67%, 31.06% and 7.10% to the control; for the tetrahydrofuran optimized medium, the content of atractylon, atractylol and atractydin all increased, and the total volatile oil content increased by 49.97% to the control when the concentration of tetrahydrofuran was 0.07 g/L. [Conclusion] The addition of xylose and tetrahydrofuran promoted the accumulation of principal constituents of the volatile oil, whereas the addition of isoprene inhibited the accumulation.
