as part of an investigation of the more primitive plant families in australia the chemical profile of the essential oils from leaves of the six species of the australian genus daphnandra have been characterized. daphnandra apetala gave a sesquiterpenic oil, with -caryophyllene (9-19%), germacrene-d (15-20%) and bicyclogermacrene (9-12%) constituting the major components. d. johnsonii gave an oil with significant amounts of monoterpenes (-pinene, 31.7% and camphene, 18.6%) and sesquiterpenes (cubenol, 3.1%, -caryophyllene, 3.1% and -, -, -eudesmols, 6.3%, 5.1%, 2.3%, respectively). d. melasmena produced sesquiterpenic oil, with spathulenol (20.4%) and bicyclogermacrene (8.3%) as the principal components. d. micrantha produced a oil with sesquiterpenes (mainly cubebol, 7.4%, spathulenol, 8.3% and germacrene-d, 6.8%) and monoterpenes (mainly-pinene, 8.5%, camphene, 8.6%) as the most significant components. d. repandula gave a sesquiterpenic oil of two types; one in which the principal components were bicyclogermacrene (19-24%) and spathulenol (10-15%), and -, -, -eudesmol present in trace amounts; while a second type contained -caryophyllene (11-13%) and bicyclogermacrene (22-25%) as the major components and small amounts of -, -, -eudesmol (each up to 5%).d. tenuipes gave a sesquiterpenic leaf oil with major components being germacrene-d (16-21%) and germacrene-b (16-21%). the oil yield of all species was low, being less than 0.5% (w/w, fresh weight).