the chemical composition of 35 leaf oil samples from polyalthia longifolia (sonnerat) thwait., growing in five districts in abidjan and its suburbs, has been investigated by gc(fid) in combination with retention indices, gc-ms and 13c-nmr. in total, 30 individual components have been identified, mostly sesquiterpenes. the contents of the main components varied substantially from sample to sample: (e)--caryophyllene (18.9-31.4%), -zingiberene (6.1-22.1%), allo-aromadendrene (12.4-17.3%) and -humulene (6.4-11.0%). however, pca was unable to differentiate groups within the 35 compositions. the chemical composition of ivorian p. longifolia leaf oils may be summarized as follow: (e)--caryophyllene (m = 25.3%; sd = 1.2), allo-aromadendrene (m = 15.2%; sd = 0.5), -zingiberene (m = 13.6%; sd = 3.6) and -humulene (m = 8.4%; sd = 0.2).