abstract volatile oil from the rhizomes of curcuma haritha mangaly and sabu from the western ghats, southern india, was isolated by hydrodistillation and characterized by a combination of gc-fid, gc-ms, co-gc, database and literature search, linear retention indices, prep. tlc, ir, nmr and ms. refractive index, specific rotation and specific gravity of c. haritha rhizome oil were measured. fifty constituents, comprising 99.9% of c. haritha rhizome oil, were identified, of which monoterpene hydrocarbons, oxygenated monoterpenes, sesquiterpene hydrocarbons and oxygenated sesquiterpenes constituted 7.7%, 72.0%, 1.9% and 18.2%, respectively. camphor (36.0%), 1,8-cineole (13.9%), isoborneol (10.6%), camphene (5.7%) and linalool (4.7%) were the major monoterpenes, while curdione (6.9%), furanogermenone (3.3%) and germacrone (2.8%) were the major sesquiterpenoids in c. haritha rhizome oil. camphor and curdione were quantified by external standardization. copyright (c) 2008 john wiley & sons, ltd.