The essential oil obtained by hydrodistillation of leaves of Cassia alata collected in Gabon was analyzed using capillary GC and GC/MS. Forty-four compounds representing 95.2% of the oil were identifi ed among them linalool (23.0%), borneol (8.6%) and pentadecanal (9.3%) were major constituents. The antioxidant activity of the oil was found to be low compared to that of butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT).