To analyze the constituents of essential oil from Chinese eaglewood [resinous wood of Aquilaria sinensis （Lour.） Gilg] and its anti-methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus （MRSA） activity. The essential oil was extracted by water-steam distillation and analyzed by GC/MS method. The relative contents of the compounds were determined by normalization. The compounds were characterized by NIST05 and WILEY275L database matching and comparison of their MS spectra with those of literature data. Antibacterial activity of the oil was assayed by the filter paper disc agar diffusion method. The oil showed significant antibacterial activity against MRSA. Sixty-six chromatographic peaks were detected, among them thirty compounds comprising 59.80% of the total essential oil were characterized. Twenty-six compounds comprising 54.26% of the oil were identified as sesquiterpenes. β-Agarofuran （8.96%）, kusunol （7.82%）, （-）-jinkoh-eremol （5.04%）, agarospirol （4.53%）, baimuxifuranic acid （4.09%） were the major sesquiterpenes. Four nor-sesquiterpenes and some other sesquiterpenes, such as 10-epi-γ-eudesmol, α-agarofuran, epi-ligulyl oxide, etc. were detected in Chinese eaglewood oil for the first time. This is the first report about anti-MRSA activity of Chinese eaglewood oil from A. sinensis.
