Valdir Alves Facundo*, Silane Aparecida Ferreira and Selene Maia de Morais

Abstract: The essential oils obtained from the leaves of Piper dumosum Rudge and Piper aleyreanum C.DC, collected from the southern Amazon forest, Brazil, were analyzed by GC and GC/MS. The major components found in the oil of P. dumosum were biclyclogermacrene (16.2%), β-caryophyllene (15.9%), β-pinene (16.0%) and α-pinene (12.1%). The oil of P. aleyreanum showed as main constituents β-pinene (14.4%), isocaryophyllene (17.5%) and β-caryophyllene (18.6%).

Piper dumosum Rudge and P. aleyreanum C.DC, are known by the local population as “baburau” and “mebin nixpu,” respectively.The plants of both Piper species were collected in April 2002 near the city of Porto Velho, Rondônia, in the southeast of the Amazon forest (Brazil). A voucher specimen of each has been deposited in the Herbarium of Instituto Nacional de Pesquisa da Amazônia (INPA), under number 211715 for P. dumosum and 200162 for P. aleyreanum.