<p xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML">The isolation yield was 1.25% (v/w), based on dry plant material and confirmed that the plant analyzed meets the requirements of pharmaceutical quality for thyme as EO source [<bold><xref rid="R3" ref-type="bibr">3</xref></bold>]. The chemical composition determined by GC/ MS is presented in <bold><xref ref-type="table" rid="T1">Table 1</xref></bold>. Fifteen components representing 99.91% of the total detected constituents were identified. The major components were p-cymene (8.41%), &#947;-terpinene (30.90%) and thymol (47.59%), which suggests that the EO analyzed belongs to the thymol chemotype in agreement with those previously reported in Romania [<bold><xref rid="R2" ref-type="bibr">2</xref></bold>]. The other components were present in a total amount of less than 13.01%. The chemical composition of the EO analyzed by us is very different from that previously reported in Morocco and Spain for the same species of thyme [<bold><xref rid="R11" ref-type="bibr">11</xref></bold>,<bold><xref rid="R12" ref-type="bibr">12</xref></bold>]. Similar studies in Poland, Iran, Spain and Italy, respectively, reported as major compounds in the T. vulgaris EO p-cymene, &#947;-terpinene and thymol [<bold><xref rid="R4" ref-type="bibr">4</xref></bold>,<bold><xref rid="R13" ref-type="bibr">13</xref></bold>-<bold><xref rid="R15" ref-type="bibr">15</xref></bold>]. These differences can be attributed to a large extent to the different chemotypes mentioned above [<bold><xref rid="R4" ref-type="bibr">4</xref></bold>,<bold><xref rid="R5" ref-type="bibr">5</xref></bold>,<bold><xref rid="R13" ref-type="bibr">13</xref></bold>].</p>