The regular research with Amazonian aromatic plants provides new discoveries, and a better economic and rational use of the Amazonian flora, thus increasing the vast knowledge of its biodiversity. Within this work, an aromatic species belonging to the Piperaceae family, commonly called Pimenta longa (Piper hispidinervium C.DC), native to the Amazon, stands out. It presents a high percentage of safrole, which is a very important precursor in the pharmaceutical and insecticide industries. The present work investigated the different drying techniques, evaluating the qualitative and quantitative results in the essential oils of long pepper. The plants were collected in the Experimental Station of Benfica/PA. They were taken to the laboratory of the Goeldi Museum Campus where the laboratory part of the experiment was developed. The plants were dried in an oven at 35°C and at room temperature for 24, 48 and 72 hours. It was detected that the mechanical drying presents a higher oil yield and safrole content with a lower humidity, in relation to the drying at room temperature. The extraction was done by steam dragging with condensed water coobation. The chemical analysis of the essential oils used the gas chromatography technique. The results obtained from the types of drying are feasible, but the mechanical drying had a better efficiency in the percentage of safrole. However, this drying is more expensive financially for the small producer, making the economic viability of the culture more difficult.
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