Currently consumers have associated the health risks with the chronic consumption of synthetic antioxidants, arousing interest in the search alternative natural substances with antioxidant activity. This study aimed to evaluate the antioxidant activity of rosemary (LER) and basil extracts lyophilized (LEB) and their ability to inhibit lipid oxidation of pork sausage during processing and storage. 10 g of rosemary and basil, separately, were extracted with 100 mL of ethanol (80% v/v) in shaker at 40ºC/60 min. After filtration, the supernatants were rotary evaporated and lyophilized. Total phenolic compounds were determined by Folin-Ciocalteu and antioxidant activity by DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl), ABTS (2,2-azino-bis-3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) and β-carotene/linoleic acid (%) methods. High concentrations of total phenolic compounds (46.5 and 21.2 mg gallic acid equivalent/g of plant) were detected in rosemary and basil extract, respectively. The antioxidant activity for rosemary and basil were 370.7 and 70.3 mmol Trolox.g-1, 301.5 and 147.9 µmol Trolox.g-1, 85.7 and 85.3 %, respectively. Four groups of sausage were prepared (T1 negative control – without addition of antioxidant; T2 positive control – with addition of sodium erytorbate, T3 containing LER, and T4 containing LEB. The TBARS (thiobarbituric acid reactive substances) assay was used to measure the ability of lyophilized extract to prevent lipid oxidation in sausage and was expressed as mg of malonaldehyde/kg sample (MDA). Measurements were made on the day of their production and were analysed weekly during 49 days of storage at -10◦C. The lyophilized extracts had strong antioxidant activity and inhibited lipid oxidation in the sausage over 42 days of storage, with production low level of MDA. LER and LEB exhibited an inhibitory effect (33 and 11.5%) on lipid oxidation of sausage when compared with sodium erytorbate. The LER and LEB demonstrated similar behavior to the synthetic antioxidant in inhibiting MDA with potential use in food technology.