Alkanes from plants of the genus Achillea

The hydrocarbon fractions of three species of Achillea L. have been analysed by capillary gas chromatography (GC) and GC-mass spectrometry(GC-MS) and were shown to consist of the conventional, odd-carbon number dominant distributions of n-alkane homologues (C22-C35). n-Nonacosane (C29) is the main compound (ca. 40%), and the carbon preference index (CPI) is high (ca. 11).