Essential oils of Ocimum ciliatum were extracted by hydrodistillation at different phenological stages, in order to determine possible differences and similarities of the oil yield and chemical composition of them. Essential oil yields were 1.80, 1.30, 1.20, 1.13, 1.03 and 0.80 (w/w %) at budding, vegetative, initial flowering, full bloom, immature and ripen fruit, respectively. The essential oils were analyzed by GC/FID and GC/MS. In total, 26, 26, 27, 22, 27 and 20 components were identified, which were representing 95–99 % of total oils. All oil samples from the aerial parts of the plant at different growth stages were mostly made up of aromatic compounds group (86.18–93.89 %). The major constituents of the essential oils were methyl chavicol (81.52–91.41 %), methyl eugenol (0.97–4.18 %) and 1,8-cineole (1.30–2.43 %). The findings indicated that the oil yield and chemical compositions of the essential oil of O. ciliatum depend on different stages of growth.

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