abstract the essential oils of lantana camara l. and l. fucata lindl. leaves collected in the region of mata serrana in the municipality of brejo da madre de deus in pernambuco-brazil were obtained by hydrodistillation and analyzed by gc and gc/ms. twenty-five compounds were identified in l. camara, representing 99.4% of the leaf oil constituents, while 15 compounds were identified in l. fucata, representing 97.1% of the leaf oil constituents. the major compounds present in the oil of l. fucata were caryophyllene oxide (27.9%), gossonorol (18.2%), -caryophyllene (12.3%) and bulnesol (10.8%), whereas those in the oil of l. camara were germacrene d (28.6%), germacrene d-4-ol (19.9%), -caryophyllene (16.2%) and bicyclogermacrene (14.7%).