The stress response after jasmonic acid (JA) treatment was studied in cell suspension cultures of Catharanthus roseus. The effect of JA on the primary and secondary metabolism was based on changes in profiles of fatty acids (FA) and terpenoid indole alkaloids (TIA). According to multivariate data analyses (MVDA), three major time events were observed and characterized according to the variations of specific FA and TIA: after 0-30 min of induction FA such as C18:1, C20:0, C22:0 and C24:0 were highly induced by JA; 90-360 min after treatment was characterized by variations of C14:0 and C15:0; and 1440 min after induction JA had the largest effect on both group of metabolites were C18:1, C18:2, C18:3, C16:0, C20:0, C22:0, C24:0, catharanthine, tabersonine-like 1, serpentine, tabersonine and ajmalicine-like had the most significant variations. These results unambiguously demonstrate the profound effect of JA particularly on the accumulation of its own precursor, C18:3 and the accumulation of TIA, which can be considered as late stress response events to JA since they occurred only after 1440 min. These observations show that the early events in the JA response do not involve the de novo biosynthesis of neither its own precursor nor TIA, but is due to an already present biochemical system.