in this work, the chemical constituents, antibacterial and modulatory activities of the essential oil of lantana camara linn were studied. the essential oil was extracted from the leaves of l. camara by hydrodistillation method using clevenger's apparatus and its chemical constituents were separated and identified by gc-ms, and the relative content of each constituent was determined by area normalization. among the 25 identified components, bicyclogermacrene (19.42%), isocaryophyllene (16.70%), valecene (12.94%) and germacrene d (12.34%) were the main constituents. the oil was examined to antibacterial and modulatory activities against the multiresistant strains of escherichia coli and staphylococcus aureus by microdilution test. the results show an inhibitory activity to e. coli (mic 512 mug/ml) and s. aureus (mic 256 mug/ml). the synergism of the essential oil and aminoglycosides was verified too, with significant reduction of mics (7 x, 1250-5 mug/ml) against e. coli. it is suggested that the essential oil of lantana camara linn could be used as a source of plant-derived natural products with resistance-modifying activity.