Two new non-protein amino acids, N*-benzoyl+ornithine and N'-benzoyl-L-y-hydroxyornithine have been characterized from the seeds of Vicia pseudo-orobus. Extracts of both young and old sugar beet plants were obtained using a modified Likens and Nickerson apparatus. Constituents were identified by GC/MS, and using selected ion monitoring it was shown that the previously determined phenylacetonitrile was probably not of glucosinolate origin. Some unsaturated aldehydes, alcohols and derivatives (enzymic lipid degradation products) were formed to greater extents by the younger leaves; but otherwise such quantitative differences were relatively few and generally random. An interesting range of chlorinated compounds was obtained only from the older plants; a pesticide origin is suggested.