abstract the essential oils of the leaves, flowers and rhizomes of alpinia zerumbet (pers.), a. purpurata (viell.), hedychium coronarium k"onig, and h. gardnerianum lindl. species growing wild in fiji were obtained by steam distillation and analyzed by gc/ms. the rhizome and leaf oils of a. zerumbet were found to be rich in -pinene (4.0%, 10.0%), 1,8-cineole (28.1%, 13.2%) and terpinen-4-ol (41.4%, 40.9%), respectively. the rhizome oils of a. purpurata contained -pinene (24.9-36.1%) and -pinene (65.8-71.3%), while the leaf and flower oils of the same species contained -pinene (79.6-81.0%), -pinene (29.4-43.0%) and -caryophyllene (0-24.2%), respectively. the rhizome and leaf oils of h. coronarium were rich in -pinene (10.6%, 20.9%), -pinene (31.4%, 53.6%), 1,8-cineole (55.9%, 11.9%) and -caryophyllene (0%, 17.7%), respectively. the rhizome oils of h. gardnerianum were rich in -pinene (10.4-11.0%), -pinene (31.0-32.1%), 1,8-cineole (27-29.5%) and linalool (22.6-28.1%). the leaf and flower oils contained -pinene (18.4%, 6.6%), camphene (23.7%, 17.4%), -pinene (22.1%, 17.0%), linalool, (13.1%, 4.6%) -caryophyllene (7.7%, 17.4%) and caryophyllene oxide (0%, 10.5%), respectively.