IJBPAS, April, 2014, 3(4): 541-548 ISSN: 2277–4998 541 IJBPAS, April, 2014, 3(4) VOLATILE OIL CONSTITUENTS OF ROSMARINUS OFFICINALIS L. OBTAINED IN OPEN-AIR MARKET FROM RIO DE JANEIRO BOIX YF 1 , VICTÓRIO CP 2 *, ARRUDA RDC 3 AND LAGE CLS 4 1: Laboratório Biotecnologia Vegetal, Centro Nacional de Electromagnetismo Aplicado (CNEA), Universidad de Oriente, Av Las Americas s/n, 53 22 646378, Cuba 2: Laboratório de Biotecnologia Ambiental, Centro Universitário Estadual da Zona Oeste (UEZO), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 3: Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul (UFMS), Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil 4: Instituto Nacional da Propriedade Industrial (INPI), DART/COPEPI, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil *Corresponding Author: E Mail: cristianevictorio@uezo.rj.gov.br ; Tel.: +55 21 23327535; Fax.: +55 21 2332-7531 ABSTRACT The chemical composition of volatile oil samples of Rosmarinus officinalis L. obtained in open-air market from Rio de Janeiro city have been characterized by GC/FID and GC/MS. The plant material was extracted by simultaneous distillation-extraction in the first day of its acquisition and two day after. The major components identified in the oil of R. officinalis were α-pinene (9.4–11.8%), β-pinene (5.5–8.5%), myrcene (8.6–11.3%), 1,8 cineole (12.6- 13.2%), camphor (23.2-34.5%) and verbenone (7.7-20.9%). The oil isolated from the same sample, but in different days presented similar composition quantitative and qualitative, except by significant changes in 1, 8 cineole and verbenone contents. The high amount of camphor found in volatile oils, in comparison to other alecrim oils, suggested to classify this sample of R. officinalis as a camphor chemotype. Keywords: Alecrim, Camphor, Essential Oil, Medicinal Plant, Verbenone INTRODUCTION The sale of Rosmarinus officinalis L. (Lamiaceae) at informal market is very common. In Brazil, the open-air market is one of the main available sources of