•Twenty-four accessions of Damask rose has been studied.•Based on essential oil HCA and PCA were classified accessions into seven chemotypes.•Two chemotypes of geraniol with 55 and 49% have been introduced.•Damask rose petals had a high content of total phenol, flavonoid, and antioxidant activity.•IC50 of methanolic extracts from DPPH of petals samples was lower than ascorbic acid. Display omitted In the present study, the percentage, and compositions of essential oil, total phenol, flavonoids, anthocyanins, carotenoids and antioxidant capacity of 24 accessions of cultivated Damask rose have been investigated. These accessions had a 0.010–0.055 (v/w) percentage of essential oil. GC/MS analysis revealed forty-nine constituents that formed more than 90% of detected compounds. Geraniol, citral, methyl linoleate, n-heneicosane, and n-octane were the major components of essential oils. Acc.1 had the highest total phenol (165 mg Gallic acid/g DW) and flavonoid content (81 mg Quercetin/g DW). Total anthocyanin ranged from 0.5 to 3.5 (mg cyanidin-3-glucoside/g DW). Carotenoid content ranged from 0.002 to 0.055 mg/g DW, the highest being observed in Acc.18. Based on cluster analysis and, the accessions were categorized into seven groups. The antioxidant activities of the samples were determined using DPPH free radical scavenging activity and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assay. All the accessions (4–12 µg/ml) had lower IC50 than ascorbic acid (18 µg/ml). In FRAP assay, they had high antioxidant activity in a range of 10–25 µmol Fe+2/g DW. Based on the high and valuable source of bioactive compounds of Damask rose the elite accessions can be recommended for boosting cultivation and food applications.