the essential oil (eo) of aerial parts of lantana camara l., verbenaceae, from sim~oes, piaui, northeast of brazil, were obtained by hydrodistillation and analyzed by gc-fid and gc-ms techniques. in total, 68 compounds were identified. the most representative compounds of the oil were mono and sesquiterpenes. the main compounds found in the oil of the leaves in different months were -caryophyllene (10.5%, in june of 2009), sabinene (7.98%, in september of 2008), limonene (7.68%, in september of 2008), spathulenol (11.64%, in september of 2008). the oil from stems of l. camara was characterized by a largest amount of sesquiterpenoids, with spatulenol (15.9%) and caryophyllene oxide (17.1% in june of 2009), as main components. -gurjunene (32.7%, in september of 2008) was the most prominent compound in the stems oils, which was absent or at very low relative abundance in leaves. l. camara essential oils from leaves were cytotoxic to v79 mammalian cells and also to artemia salina, showing 50% lethal concentration (lc50) values from 0.23 ug/ml. the in vitro data obtained in this study suggested that eo may also be effective treating yeast infection in patients infected with fluconazole and terbinafine resistant isolates, but its toxicity must be monitored carefully.