abstract volatile compounds from leaves of ocimum gratissimum l. (two chemotypes) and o. minimum l. were isolated by hydrodistillation and analyzed by gc and gc/ms. twenty 35 and 31 constituents were identified, respectively, for o. gratissimum (var. i and ii) and o. minimum, of which eugenol (75.5%) and germacrene d (6.2%), p-cymene (33.3%), thymol (31.3%) and methyl chavicol (36.3%) and linalool (17.8%) were the most abundant, respectively. the oils of o. gratissimum present a significant radical scavenging activity whereas o. minimum oil was found to be much less efficient. key word index: ocimum gratissimum ocimum minimum labiataeessential oil compositioneugenolmethyl chavicolp-cymenethymollinaloolradical scavenging activity