abstract hydrodistilled essential oil of the dried mature fruits containing seeds of tagetes minuta was analyzed by gc and gc/ms. twenty-four constituents making up 93.7% of the oil were identifi ed. the major compounds were limonene + -phellandrene (4.7%), (z)- -ocimene (36.8%), dihydrotagetone + (e)- -ocimene (15.5%), (z)-tagetone (17.1%), (z)-tagetenone (3.0%) and (e)-tagetenone (7.5%). key word index: tagetes minuta compositaeessential oil composition(z)--ocimene(z)-tagetone