the present work was aimed to study chemical diversity among ocimum species collected from eastern coastal plains of india. seventeen accessions representing five ocimum species namely; o. basilicum l., o. tenuiflorum, o. gratissimum l., o. americanum l. and o. citriodorum vis. were investigated for essential oil content and oil composition by gc/fid and gc/ms. essential oil content isolated from aerial parts of ocimum species varied from 0.27% to 0.47% on fresh weight basis. a total of eighty-three compounds, constituting 95.2-99.9% of total oil were identified in five ocimum species. major volatile constituents identified were monoterpenoids (camphor, linalool, neral, nerol, geraniol, 1,8-cineole, ocimenes) and phenylpropanoids (methyl chavicol, eugenol, methyl eugenol, methyl cinnamate). ocimum species germplasm was classified into different chemotypes. o. americanum accessions belonged to camphor-rich chemotype (38.7-51.4%); while o. gratissimum belonged to eugenol-rich chemotype (59.7-71.8%). a unique high (e)-methyl cinnamate-rich chemotype (61.3-69.0%) was identified in o. basilicum whereas eugenol and methyl eugenol-rich two chemotypes were identified in o. tenuiflorum germplasm. essential oil profiling of o. citriodorum showed two distinct chemotypes rich in geranial/neral and methyl chavicol.