The effect of five drying methods on the essential oil content and composition of Rosa foetida Herrm. was studied for incorporation into a post-harvesting program for medicinal and perfumery industries. The drying methods tested were sun drying (SD), closed shade drying (CSD), oven drying at 40Â°C (OD40) and 60Â°C (OD60) and microwave drying (MD). The essential oils from fresh and dried samples were isolated by hydrodistillation and analyzed by a gas chromatographyâflame ionization detector (GCâFID) and GCâmass spectrometry (GCâMS). The drying method had a significant effect on the essential oil content (w/w%) in the order of: CSD (0.28%) > SD (0.20%) > OD40 (0.18%) > OD60 (0.14%) > MD (0.05%). In total, twenty-three, thirteen, eight, twelve, ten and twelve constituents were identified and quantified in fresh, CSD, SD, OD40, OD60 and MD samples, representing 93.4%, 97.5%, 97.3%, 97.4%, 98.0% and 96.7% of the total oil, respectively. The major components of all samples were n-nonadecane (25.8â56.4%), n-heneicosane (16.7â24.4%), 1-hexadecanol (14.5â19.7%), n-tetradecanol (1.5â6.8%) and Z-octadecadienal (1.0â5.2%). Our results showed that the drying method not only had an effect on the number of chemical components, but also significantly influenced the proportion of various constituents.