Background: Fatty acids and tocopherols in appropriate quantities are invaluable attributes that are desirable in seeds of agricultural products. Studies have generally focused on the evaluation of the oil and tocopherol components of oil crops. Recently, investigations revealed that the grape seed has robust potential in the production of healthy fatty acids as well as tocopherols. This study was thus conducted to determine the oil and tocopherol components of grape seeds, obtained from various grape cultivars of different species, including two rootstock varieties. Results: The grape seed oil concentration of the studied varieties ranged from 7.3 to 22.4%. The determined fatty acid profiles of the genotypes conformed to the pattern described in the literature for grapes. Linoleic acid is the major component comprising 53.6-69.6% of the total, followed by oleic (16.2-31.2%), palmitic (6.9-12.9%) and stearic (1.44-4.69%). The oils of all the seeds analysed showed a preponderance of α-tocopherol (ranging from 260.5 to 153.1 mg kg -1 oil extract). β-Tocopherol, γ-tocopherol and δ-tocopherol were also detected with the general means of 0.98, 22.2 and 0.92 mg kg -1, respectively. Linoleic acid showed a significantly negative correlation with all the fatty acids analysed. The strongest negative correlation existed between linoleic and oleic acids (r = - 0.834, P < 0.01). Conclusion: Present investigations indicated that oil content, fatty acid composition and tocopherol constituents of grape seed show great variation among the genotypes. Markedly higher proportions of linoleic acid with considerable amounts of tocopherols found in the oil samples suggest that grape seed is a good source for culinary, pharmaceutical and cosmetic uses. © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry.