abstract the chemical composition of the essential oil of mentha pulegium from bulgaria has been determined by gc and gc/ms. the yields of oil obtained by water and steam distillation were 1.54% and 1.48%, respectively. the basic components, among the identified 21 were pulegone (42.9-45.4%), piperitenone (21.7-23.1%) and isomenthone (11.3-12.8%). there were no substantial qualitative differences between the oils obtained by water or steam distillation.