abstract the volatile components of two essential oils obtained from plants indigenous to nepal, anthopogon (rhododendron anthopogon) and curcuma zedoaria oils, and four oils, chamomile (chamomilla recutita), french basil (ocimum basilicum), cornmint (mentha canadensis) and palmarosa (cymbopogon martini var. martini), which are exotic but produced in nepal, were analyzed with gc/ms and the antimicrobial activity of all the six oils were examined using petri plate-paper disk method. the microorganisms tested were staphylococcus aureus (ifo14462), corynebacterium amycolatum (ifo 15207), escherichia coli (ifo 15034), candida albicans (ifo 1594) and aspergillus ochraceus (ifo 31221). anthopogon oil contained -cadinene (11.4%) and curcuma zedoaria oil contained 1,8-cineole (15.8%) and -eudesmol (10.6%) as major volatile components. all of the examined oils indicated antimicrobial activity at similar levels to that of oils with the same designation previously reported. it was revealed that oils produced in nepal be effectively applicable to a variety of uses in terms of antimicrobial activity