The hydro distilled essential oil from the freshly cut leaves and branches of Melaleuca alternifolia Cheel. grown in India was analyzed by capillary GC and GC-MS. The leaf oil was found to contain 33 components (99.5%) of which 21 were completely identified, 6 were tentatively identified while as one remained unknown. Quantitatively the oil was characterized by a high percentage of monoterpene fraction amounting to about 67%, dominated by oxygenated monoterpenes (59.3%). Terpinen-4-ol (47.7%) was the main component followed by neo-dihydrocarveol (6.3%) and 1,8-cineole (5.3%). The monoterpene hydrocarbon fraction (9.3%) consisted mainly of ρ-cymene (7.3%). The sesquiterpene fraction (16.2%) consists mainly of β-caryophyllene and globulol (3% each).