abstract the chemical composition of essential oils isolated from flowering whole herb, flowers, leaves and stem of cornmint cv. 'shivalik' grown on black soil in semi-arid tropical climate, were compared. cornmint grew to a height of 75-120 cm and produced 4.5-54 kg biomass/m2. flowers, leaves and stems contributed 31-3%, 37.4% and 31.3% to biomass yield and produced essential oil yields of 1.50%, 1.56% and 0.06%, respectively. the flowering whole herb gave 0.59% oil yield. the whole herb and leaves produced oils of similar composition, except for slightly higher content of menthol (71.1%) in leaf oil. the flower oil contained highest concentration of menthone (30.2%), but lowest percentage of menthol (53.2%). stem oil was richer in menthol (82.3%) and menthyl acetate (3.4%), but poorer, compared to other oils, in myrcene + 3-octanol, limonene + 1,8-cineole, menthone, isomenthone and neomenthol.