abstract the chemical composition of the leaf oils obtained by hydrodistillation of eight eugenia species, collected in southern brazil, was analyzed by gc and gc/ms. eugenia speciosa oil is characterized by large amounts of monoterpene hydrocarbons with -pinene (47.3%) and limonene (23.0%) as major constituents, while e. cuprea oil is composed of 78.6% sesquiterpenes. spathulenol (12.1%) was the major component, followed by -caryophyllene (9.2%) and caryophyllene oxide (8.7%). eugenia arenosa was dominated by the acyclic sesquiterpene, farnesyl acetate (70.4%) and aromadendrene (11.7%). eugenia brasiliensis, e. multicostata, e. sulcata and e. xiriricana oils possessed very similar chemical compositions. in the monoterpene fraction, - and -pinene were the major components (a total of 40.7%, 23.4%, 35.9% and 21.9%, respectively), while for e. pitanga (e)--ocimene (10.5%) was the major component. for the sesquiterpene fraction, spathulenol and globulol were the major components (a total of 10.5%, 19.4%, 18.8% and 24.0%, respectively). in contrast, the oil of e. pitanga was characterized in this fraction by germacrene d and bicyclogermacrene (29.3% and 22.4%, respectively).