ocimum basilicum (sweet basil) is an important essential oil plant used for different purposes (from food flavoring to pharmaceutical applications) characterized by the presence of several chemotypes. here we show a comparative analysis between hydrodistillation of essential oils (eo) and supercritical co2 extraction (sfe) of an o. basilicum chemotype particularly rich in t-cadinol. sfe yielded a higher percentage of 1,8-cineole (10%; 4-fold), linalool (23.2%; 5.8-fold), eugenol (13.3%; 1.2-fold) and germacrene d (5.6%; 28-fold) with respect to eo. on the other hand, eo composition was characterized by higher percentages of t-cadinol (27.5%; 3-fold) and some other sesquiterpenes with respect to sfe. the presence of high percentages of t-cadinol in eo is of great importance owing to the biological activity of this compound in cancer therapy and as an antibiotic.