abstract this study was designed to examine the essential oil composition, phenolic contents and antioxidant activity of the essential oils and methanol extracts from two coriander fruit samples, the first from tunisia (tn) and the second from canada (can). the highest essential oil yield was observed for can with 0.44% (w/w) and 0.37% (w/w) for tn. forty-five compounds were identified in the essential oils and the main compound of both samples was linalool. the total phenol contents varied between two coriander fruit samples; can sample presented high polyphenol contents (15.16 mg gae/g) compared with tn one (12.10 mg gae/g). significant differences were also found in total tannin contents among representing 0.7 mg gae/g in can and 0.34 mg gae/g in tn. the highest contents of total flavonoids were observed in can sample with 13.2 mg ce/g antioxidants of essential oils and methanolic extracts of these fruit samples were evaluated by using dpph radical scavenging, -carotene-linoleic acid bleaching and reducing power activity assays. in all tests, methanolic extracts of coriander fruits showed better antioxidant activity than essential oils. dpph scavenging ability of methanolic extracts of two fruits was higher than that of synthetic antioxidant bht (ic50 = 25 g/ml). both extracts and essential oils had lower -carotene bleaching activity than bha and bht and had lower reducing power than ascorbic acid (ec50 = 40 g/ml)