The influence of ultrasonic pre-treatment of Comm carvi L seeds cultivated in El Hamadia, Bordj Bou Arreridj (Algeria) was investigated for the recovery of essential oil (EO) by means of hydrodistillation. The results indicate that ultrasound treatment engenders a rapid release of essential oil with 80% of EO recovery after only 30 min of extraction for treated seeds versus 90 min for untreated seeds. However, almost similar yields of volatile fraction were obtained with 1.72% versus 1.68%, respectively. A total of 21 components accounting for 99% of total oil were identified using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The main constituents for both extracts (treated and untreated seeds) were carvone (5.93 mg/g, 5.73 mg/g) is predominant over limonene (5.47 mg/g, 5.28 mg/g). Therefore, the data report higher carvone/limonene concentration ratio for treated seeds in shorter processing time. In addition, the analysis of essential oil obtained from hydrodistillation of seeds, revealed that 61% of EO was recovered in the liquid phase in treated seeds against 63% of EO in the solid phase from untreated samples. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.