Essential Oil Composition of Achillea aucheri Boiss at Different Growing Altitudes in Damavand, Iran

Thegenus Achillea is one of the most important medicinal plants in the Asteraceae family. Nineteen species of this genus have been described in the Flora Iranica, of which Achillea aucheri Boiss is an endemic species to Iran. Given the effect of geographic location on the quality and yield of essential oil, we performed an investigation to determine oil contents of A. aucheri growing at different altitudes of Mount Damavand and analyzed its components. Essential oil was extracted with hydro-distillation method and nearly 96.20% of oil components were identified using GC and GC/MS, on average. These components included isopulegol (16.39%), yomogi alcohol (10.92%), (Z)-ß-ocimene (9.84%), camphor (5.65%), 1,8-cineole (4.98%), linalool (4.81%), γ-terpinolene (3.66%), α-fenchene (3.60%), camphene (3.20%), α-pinene (3.15%), α-terpineol (2.71%), nerolidol (2.54%), chamazulene (1.74%) and α-thujone (1.67%), with 34 other components. In general, essential oil composition of A. aucheri was influenced by climatic condition prevailing at different altitudes. By increasing altitude, constituent of α-thujone, a harmful compound for human body, decreased in its value. Moreover, going from 3,900 to 4,300 m altitude, the valuable constituent of chamazulene increased more than 10 times.