Terpenes are one of the most complex groups of secondary metabolites found in plants. They are formed by isoprene units (C5), which are responsible for their classification, so that two isoprene units form the monoterpenes (C10), three units form the sesquiterpenes (C15), four units form the diterpenes (C20), six units form the triterpenes (C30) and the carotenoids are formed by eight units (C40) (IUPAC, 2013). The current literature presents hundreds of studies that report antimicrobial activity of essential oils, however, the great majority of the studies attribute the activity to the major compounds without analyzing them in isolation. Therefore, the aim of this study were to investigate the antibacterial activity and the bacteria 24h-time-kill curve studies of 33 terpenes reported in the secondary metabolism of aromatic plants. Initially, screening was carried out with 25 and 2.5 mM by broth microdilution method in 96-well microplates was evaluated against E. coli, S. aureus, B. cereus and S. typhimurium. The determination of minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) by broth microdilution method (CLSI, 1999) was performed only with compounds that showed activity. The determination of minimum bactericidal concentration and the time-kill study (0, 2, 4, 8, 12 and 24 h) were performed in Petri dishes in concentrations of MIC, 2xMIC and 4xMIC, where the reduction of ≥ 3 log10 CFU of the initial count was defined as bactericidal effect. Of the 33 compounds evaluated, seven presented no activity, and 16 showed antibacterial activity in the lower concentration evaluated, and thymol, carvacrol, citral, carveol, citronellol, geraniol and eugenol those with potential action, however, only carveol, citronellol, geraniol, eugenol, and thymol showed promising bactericidal action. Eugenol showed rapid bactericidal action (2 h) in all concentrations evaluated against S. typhimurium. Terpineol showed a reduction of 6 log10 CFU at a concentration of 2xMIC and 4xMICat 12 and 8 hours, respectively, for S. aureus strains. The 24h-time-kill studies for E. coli strains, the carveol and citronellol compounds showed rapid bactericidal effect (2 h) at a concentration of 4xMIC, while geraniol presents rapid bactericidal effect (2 h) at a concentration of 2xMIC. None of the evaluated compounds had bactericidal activity against the B. cereus strain. The best antimicrobial activity is related to the presence of phenolic groups, which are already known to exhibit antimicrobial activity, when compared with hydrocarbons, such as limonene, terpinene, camphene, pinene, which presented a weak antimicrobial action.