abstract the essential oils of the rhizomes and the leaves of alpinia galanga willd. from bangalore and hyderabad in india were analyzed by capillary gc and gc/ms. the oils of the rhizomes and the leaves from the two places were found to contain similar constituents. the rhizome oils from bangalore and hyderabad contained limonene (3.7% and 3.5 %, respectively), 1,8-cineole (33.0% and 30.2 %, respectively), camphor (5.0% and 14.0%, respectively), -terpineol (9.3 % and 2.3 %, respectively), -fenchyl acetate (12.7 % and 1.1 %, respectively) and (e)-methyl cinnamate (5.3 % and 2.6 %, respectively), as the major constituents. the major constituents of the leaf oils from the same locations were: -pinene (6.6 % and 6.3 %, respectively), camphene (5.0 % and 5.1%, respectively), -pinene (21.5 % and 23.5 %, respectively), 1,8-cineole (34.4 % and 30.7%, respectively) and camphor (7.8 % and 12.8 %, respectively).