The main objective of this article is to design a compact ring printed monopole antenna for WiBAN applications. The performance of antenna is measured based on gain, return loss, efficiency, radiation pattern, and operating bandwidth. The antenna is implanted into canola oil (for homogeneous material) and beef (for nonhomogeneous material). The final measured result shows satisfactory performance and good agreement with the simulated result. The result presented indicates that the gain of antenna is 0.8 dBi with 49% efficiency when antenna is implanted into canola oil, whereas the gain of antenna is −30 dBi with 0.04% efficiency when antenna is implanted into beef. The radiation patterns of antenna are changed depend on the size and material of human body model. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 55:1053–1058, 2013; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.27503