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INTRODUÇÃOLippia alba ocorre nas américas Central e do Sul, habitando praticamente todas as regiões do Brasil, onde é muito empregada como medicinal, pelas suas propriedades sedativa, carminativa, analgésica, espasmolítica e emenagoga (Zétola et al., 2002;Vale et al., 1999;Matos et al., 1996) Unitermos: Lippia alba, Verbenaceae, óleo essencial, citral, carvona, linalol.ABSTRACT: "Analysis of the essential oil from leaves of three Lippia alba (Mill.) N. E. Br. (Verbenaceae) chemotypes cultivated on the same conditions". The composition of Lippia alba essential oil varies in a manner that different chemotypes are recognized. This work deals with the analysis of the essential oil from three chemotypes of L. alba from different regions of Brazil, cultivated in similar conditions, to verify if the differences in their chemical composition can be due to environmental conditions or may be due to infra-specifi c genetic variation. The infl uence of fl owering was investigated regarding essential oil yield and composition. The chemotypes producing citral, carvone and linalol were denominated chemotypes 1, 2 and 3, respectively. The essential oils were obtained by hydrodistillation of the leaves, at fl owering and vegetative growth stages. Essential oils were analyzed by GC and GC/MS. A better yield was obtained from plants at vegetative stage. The composition of the essential oils remained unchanged after cultivation in the same conditions, and did not vary qualitatively during fl owering and vegetative periods. Relative percentages of the major compounds changed during fl owering period. Data obtained allow us to reinforce the idea that differences in the essential oil composition of the three chemotypes are due to genotypic variations and that the essential oil extraction during the vegetative period enables a better yield and higher percentages of the major compounds.

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