The essential oils of wild and cultivatedLippia javanica(Spreng) and of wildL. oatesii(Rolfe) from Zimbabwe were obtained by steam distillation of the fresh and air-dried plant material and examined by GC and GC/MS. The oil composition ofL. javanicacollected in the wild from nine different centres was variable with one or more of the following being the major components: linalool (1.8–68.8%), myrcene (0.5–54.0%), limonene (0.4–39.9%), 2,6-dimethylstyrene (trace-26.9%), neral and geranial (trace-29.3%) and geraniol (trace-15.8%). CultivatedL. javanicafrom two pilot centers contained myrcene (33.1–52.4%) and linalool (1.7–19.1%) as the main components. The oil from fresh and air dried X.oatesiicollected from the wild contained geranial (23.0–38.9%), neral (18.1–28.5%), p-cymene (6.8–25.7%) and α-phellandrene (2.9–16.8%) as the major components. The two plants are potential sources of oils and important constituents and cultivation trials forL. oatesiiare underway.