Composition of Achillea distans Willd. subsp. distans root essential oil

Abstract

Gas chromatography and gas chromatography/mass specteometry analyses of root volatiles of Achillea distans Willd. subsp. distans, collected from wild populations in Serbia, enabled the identification of 185 constituents, accounting for 93.6% of the total oil. Main constituents of the oil were τ-cadinol (17.6%), alismol (14.1%), α-cadinol (9.1%) and caryophyllene oxide (5.0%). The root oil was additionally characterised by the presence of five different amides containing the olefinic C₁₀ acid moieties. This is the first report on A. distans subsp. distans root volatiles and on the occurrence of piperidides and piperideides as essential oil constituents.

Keywords:

• Achillea distans subsp. distans
• essential oil
• chemical composition
• root
• alkamides

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the Ministry of Science and Technological Development of Serbia for financial support (Project 142054 B).