Chemical Composition of the Essential Oil of Achillea tenuifolia Aerial Parts

The essential oil from the aerial parts of Achillea tenuifolia was isolated using the hydro- distillation method and analyzed for its chemical composition by GC-MS. The oil exhibited the presence of twenty-two compounds representing 98.58 % are of total chromatogram. The oil was dominated by monoterpene hydrocarbons amounting to 47.70 % with alpha-pinene (10.11 %), camphene (9.41 %) and beta-pinene (7.54 %) as major compounds while the latter was dominated by oxygenated compounds containing (36.22 %) with carvacrol (20.43 %) as the principal compound of the total oil. The composition and characteristic odor of the oil is indicative of its use in fragrance applications.