Mauritia flexuosa is a species of palm belonging to the Arecaceae family that grows in extensive area along north-central Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela. The by-products of these fruits like the oil are of great economic and social importance in all countries where it grows; the oil extracted from fruits of M. flexuosa is used for cooking and is rich in monounsaturated fatty acids and natural antioxidants; and also, recently antiplatelet activity was reported. In order to better understand the thermal behavior and the antioxidant capacity of the oil extracted from the peel of M. flexuosa, the lipid profile, TG/DTG curve (under oxygen atmospheres), total phenolic content and the antioxidant activity were determined. The TG curve of the oil extracted from the peel of M. flexuosa showed a mass loss at a temperature ranging between 200 and 600 °C. The bigger decomposition step occurred in the temperature range of 200–420 °C, showing a similar thermal behavior than the canola and olive oils. Nevertheless, the studied oil showed a higher phenolic content at a degradation onset temperature (T 0) than the other oils, and this is due to the structural characteristics of the polyphenols that have these oils. The antioxidant activity of the different oils by the DPPH radical scavenging method showed that there is a direct correlation between phenol contents and antioxidant activities of the oils. This study shows the importance of the M. flexuosa oil obtained from the peel as a potential source of natural antioxidants