abstract myrtus communis var. italica leaves, fruits and stems were gathered from north tunisia in order to investigate their essential oils during a one-year vegetative cycle by gc-fid and gc/ms. the yield and composition of myrtle oils were found to depend on the organ type and on the harvest period. the oil yield varied from 0.14-0.61% for the leaves, 0.003-0.11% for the fruits, and 0.001-0.06% for the stems. forty-eight compounds were identified in leaf oils; -pinene (28.3-58.0%), 1,8-cineole (12.7-30.7%), linalool (2.4-21.5%) and limonene (0.1-13.3%) were the main components. in the fruit oils, 46 compounds were identified with 1,8-cineole (7.3-44.9%), geranyl acetate (1.8-20.5%), linalool (0.7-18.9%) and -pinene (1.2-12.6%) being the main compounds. only 40 components were identified in stem oils, which were rich in 1,8-cineole (21.0-52.4%), linalool (3.1-18.4%) and -pinene (1.5-16.1%).