abstract the leaf oils of nine taxa in the genus persea, subgenus persea were examined by gc/ms. the taxa were persea schiedeana, p. primatogena, p. americana var. floccosa, p. americana. var. steyermarkii, p. americana var. nubigena, p. americana var. drymifolia, p. americana var. guatemalensis, p. americana var. americana and the chemovar, "aguacate de anis." analysis of oils showed the presence of over 90 components, of which 76 were identified. p. schiedeana oil was found to contain -pinene (23.7%), -pinene (23.2%) and -caryophyllene as major components. the major constituents of p. americana var. floccosa and p. americana var. steyermarkii were -pinene (10.9%, 7.6%), -pinene (20.6%, 10.4%), -terpineol (9.6%, 7.9%), -caryophyllene (12.6%, 8.4%), viridiflorene (0.1%, 10.3%) and globulol (0.1%, 9.2%), respectively. the oils of p. americana var. nubigena and p. americana var. drymifolia contained -terpineol (18.4%, 393%) and methylchavicol (12.4%, 40.2%), as major components, respectively. p. americana var. guatemalensis was found to be rich in -caryophyllene (38.3%), while the oils of p. americana var. americana and p. primatogena contained -pinene (27.5%) and -pinene (40.9%), and -pinene (24.6%), -caryophyllene (20.7%) and germacene d (10.1%). finally, the oil of the chemovar "aguacate de anis" contained methyl chavicol (13.9%) and (e)-anethole (67.0%) as major components.