The volatiles released by agar plate cultures of nineteen actinomycetes whose genomes were recently sequenced were collected by use of a closed-loop stripping apparatus (CLSA) and analysed by GC/MS. In total, 178 compounds from various classes were identified. The most interesting findings were the detection of the insect pheromone frontalin in Streptomyces varsoviensis, and the emission of the unusual plant metabolite 1-nitro-2-phenylethane. Its biosynthesis from phenylalanine was investigated in isotopic labelling experiments. Furthermore, the identified terpenes were correlated to the information about terpene cyclase homologs encoded in the investigated strains. The analytical data were in line with functionally characterised bacterial terpene cyclases and particularly corroborated the recently suggested function of a terpene cyclase from Streptomyces violaceusniger by the identification of a functional homolog in Streptomyces rapamycinicus.