abstract artemisia myriantha var. pleiocephala plants collected from the temperate garhwal region of western himalayas were domesticated in the subtropical conditions of north indian plains. considerable changes were observed in the oil constituents of the plant after domestication from temperate conditions to subtropical conditions. in the naturally growing temperate plants, major constituents of the oil were chrysanthenone (7.3%) followed by -cadinene (5.7%) and 1,8,cineole (5.3%) during flowering. after domestication at subtropical conditions of lucknow, although the major constituent of the oil remained chrysanthenone, its quantity increased considerably (15.0-29.1%) during flowering. another important constituent of the oil of the domesticated plants during flowering was limonene (6.1-15.1%). however, during the vegetative stage, camphor (74.9%) was its major constituent. key word index: artemisia myriantha var. pleiocephala asteraceaeessential oil compositionlimonenechrysanthenonecamphor