The volatile compounds of Rumex induratus leaves were studied for the first time. In order to achieve the most complete volatile profile four different extractive techniques (hydrodistillation, solid-phase microextraction. Soxhlet system and direct solvent extraction) were applied. The different extracts were analysed by gas chromatography/ion trap-mass spectrometry (GC/IT-MS) which allowed the identification of 81 compounds, distributed by several chemical classes: esters, terpenes, aldehydes, acids, norisoprenoids, ketones, naphthalene derivatives, steroids derivatives and alcohols, among others. The different techniques lead to different compounds' extraction. Using hexane and dichloromethane, 9 and 4 compounds were extracted, respectively. Hydrodistillation, solid-phase microextraction and Soxhlet extraction allowed the extraction of 43, 24 and 29 compounds, respectively. Hydrodistillation was revealed to be the most effective technique. allowing the extraction of a higher number of compounds, both in the hydrolat (20 compounds) and essential oil (34 compounds), having 11 compounds in common. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.