abstract the essential oils from the leaves and flowers of tagetes erecta l. cultivated in nigeria were examined by gc and gc/ms. piperitone (50.7%), piperitenone (13.2%) and (e)--ocimene (6.7%) were the predominant components in the leaf oil. the flower oil was characterized by the presence of 1, 8-cineole (23.1%), -pinene (11.8%), -terpineol (10.7%), piperitone (8.0%) and sabinene (5.6%) as the major compounds.