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Acorus calamus L. (Araceae), is a semi aquatic perennial herb extensively distributed in western Himalaya. To explore the variability in volatile constituents of rhizome essential oils of A. calamus growing wild in foot and mid hills of Uttarakhand, India; twenty one populations were collected during spring season from an altitude of 215 m to 1827 m. The essential oil yield was found to vary from 0.68% to 5.80% in the different populations of A. calamus. GC-FID and GC-MS analysis of oil samples resulted in identification of forty constituents comprising 94.0-99.9% of oil compositions. Phenyl propanoids (81.9-96.9%) represented by β-asarone (69.8-95.6%), α-asarone (0.1-4.7%), (Z)-methyl isoeugenol (<0.1-4.4%), (E)-isoeugenol acetate (0.0-3.7%), (E)-methyl isoeugenol (0.1-2.9%) and ?-asarone (<0.1-1.6%) constitute the major fraction of essential oil composition. Other major constituents identified were a-selinene (0.1-7.2%), humulene epoxide II (<0.1-3.5%), p-cymene (<0.1-1.9%) and a-bisabolol (0.0-1.6%). Comparative results and subsequent statistical analysis based on euclidean multidimensional distance scaling showed considerable variations in rhizome essential oils composition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]