Croton zehntneri Pax et Hoff is indigenous to the Northeastern of Brazil; is rich in (E)-anethole and is largely used in cooking to impart flavor to a variety of foods; is used in folk medicine to treat indigestion, insomnia, etc. In this work the volatile oil from C. zehntneri was extracted using pressurized CO2. Both kinetic and solubility experiments were performed at pressures of 66.7 and 78.5bar and temperatures from 10 to 28 degrees C. The composition of the volatile oil was determined using gas chromatography. The maximum solubility (2.83 x 10(-2) kg/kg) was observed at 15 degrees and 66.7 bar while the maximum global yield (3.4%, mass) was detected at 20 degrees C at the same pressure. The volatile oil was formed predominantly by (E)-anethole (73.6%, area), alpha-muurolene (7.51%), methyl chavicol or estragole (2.52%), germacrene D (2.11%) and small amounts of other terpenoidic compounds. The overall extraction curves were fitted by several models from the literature. The models that best described the overall extraction curves were the Goto et al., Martinez et al., and Sovova. (c) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.