Persea americana Mill., avocado, is a popular traditional fruit food that is consumed during food scarcity in Southwestern Nigeria. The plant of P. americana have several therapeutic effects including analgesic, anti-inflammatory and hypotensive effects. The essential oil obtained by hydrodistillation from the leaf of the plant was analyzed by gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS).β-Caryophyllene (43.9%) and valencene (16.0%) are the most abundant compounds in the oil. Other quantitatively significant constituents are germacrene D (5.9%), α-humulene (5.0%) and δ-cadinene (4.8%)