Chemical composition of essential oil of two Achillea cultivars in Khorasan, Iran

Medicinal plants used in folk medicine are being increasingly studied and used on pharmaceutical, foodand nutraceutical fields.Medicinal plants mainly grow in plains, roadsides and mountainous regions. They are mostly used as wound healer due to tannins properties, besides having bitter and aromatic materials effects on the nervous system and heart. This paper presents a study on the chemical composition of essential oils of the flower of A. millefoliumL. subsp and A. eriophorafromkhorasan, obtained by the hydrodistillation method and analyzed by using gas chromatography mass spectroscopy.Recent researches show that these plants have anti-cancer property. Forsampling, these plantsweretaken fromKhorasan, Iran,during the full flowering stage in July 2012. The plants’ constituents were identified by their mass spectra and Kovats’ indices Camphor, in which Fragranyl acetate, Thymol, Linalool and 1,8-Cineole were found to be the major constituents.