artemisia pallens wall. ex dc, commonly known as davana, is cultivated in india for extraction of its essential oil (do). in this study, do collected from thirteen locations (do1-do13) and those extracted from six different phenophases and different plant parts were investigated using gc-fid and gc-ms. altogether, 84 constituents were identified, forming 81.0-96.2% of the total oil composition. major components of the oils were cis-davanone (17.4-65.1%), bicyclogermacrene (4.0-22.0%), cis-methyl jasmonate (0.4-8.5%), -eudesmol (0.3-6.6%), davana ether isomer (0.5-6.1%), trans-ethyl cinnamate (1.4-6.1%), and germacrene d (0.1-4.7%). among all tested oils, the do10, having low cis-davanone content (27.5%), was found more potent against test microorganisms. the oils collected from different locations showed variations in their physical properties, chemical composition, and antimicrobial activity. based on the yield and cis-davanone content, the flower bud and full-flowering stages could be suitable for harvesting good quality oil in north indian plains.