Essential oil of Pilocarpus microphyllus Stapf, P. jaborandi Holmes, P. affinis pauciflorus Stapf. P. sp 192 and P. sp 212 contains terpenes, sesquiterpenes and ketones. Some of them are reported for the first time in the genus.The leaves of jaborandi are commercially exploited in the Brazilian Northeast for industrial extraction of pilocarpine, an alkaloid with potent cholinergic activity (1).In the leaves, there is also an essential oil present whose composition is registered in the literature in a confusing and incomplete way (2, 3, 4) which might be attributed to improper selection of plant material or lack of suitable identification because analyses were made on commercial materials. Therefore, chemical reexamination of the essential oil from five distinct Pilocarpus species was conducted together with an analysis of the leaves used by local industry.