abstract the hydrodistilled essential oil (yield, 0.1%) of semi-dried leaves of rynchosia minima dc. was analyzed by gc and gc/ms. twenty-four compounds representing 95.9% of the oil were identified. the major components were found to be -caryophyllene (30.4%), germacrene b (17.9%), camphor (7.8%), -humulene (7.4%) and -muurolene (7.3%). the oil was found to exhibit antibacterial activity against bacillus cerus, staphylococcus aureus and micrococcus luteus.