the seeds of perilla frutescens l. britt. (lamiaceae) were collected from twelve wild populations and grown in doon valley climatic conditions of uttarakhand himalaya (india).the essential oils obtained, were analyzed by gas chromatography (gc) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (gc-ms) for their intra-specific chemical diversity. the essential oil yield in the leaves of all the populations varied from 0.15% to 0.36%. altogether, sixteen volatile compounds were identified and a variation in their contents was found. 1-(3-furanyl)-4-methyl-1-pentanone (perillaketone) was found to be the most abundant volatile compound (44.4-69.2%), followed by isoegomaketone (7.3-27.6%), trans-caryophyllene (0.1-17.8%) and linalool (0.3-5.0%). cluster as well as principal component analysis was performed to determine the chemical variability which showed two major groups among the populations.