## 3 Results
### Identification of the Altitude-Responsive Metabolites in Chicory Leaves  
Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) is a robust technique for metabolomics study to identify various metabolites. The GC-MS analysis of chicory leaf led to the identification of various metabolites that show significant variation at different altitudes and localities. All identified major metabolites (>1%), in terms of percent area, are shown in Table 2.  
Figure 1: Distributional map of accessions of C. _intybus_ from different districts of the Kashmir region. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**S. No. **} & \multirow{2}{*}{\ \begin{tabular}{c} **Retention** \\ **Index (RI)** \\ \end{tabular}  } & \multirow{2}{*}{**Name of the Compound**} & **1554 m** & **1593 m** & **1620 m** & **1790 m** & **1877 m** & **1901 m** & **2172 m** & \begin{tabular}{c} **Average** \\ **(\%)** \\ \end{tabular}  \\ \hline
1. & 1656 & 1-methylbutylmandelate & 3.76 & - & - & - & - & - & 2.58 & 3.17 \\
2. & 2781 & Neophyradienne & 3.76 & 2.69 & 2.83 & 3.99 & 2.19 & 3.79 & 4.79 & 3.43 \\
3. & 1968 & -H-Hexadecenoic acid & 4.86 & 2.27 & 3.4 & 2.19 & 4.58 & 2.79 & 5.52 & 3.65 \\
4. & 2101 & 9,21,5-Coctadecatrienoic acid, methyl & 1.04 & - & - & - & - & - & 1.04 \\
5. & 2134 & Phylol & 2.25 & 2.08 & 2.87 & 4.48 & 1.24 & 3.29 & 7.98 & 3.45 \\
6. & 2191 & 9,12,15-Octadecatrienoic acid & 6.69 & 2.78 & 3.2 & 2.78 & 5.84 & 2.55 & 8.42 & 4.60 \\
7. & 2167 & Octadecanoic acid & 1.45 & - & 1.8 & - & 1.19 & - & 2.18 & 1.65 \\
8. & 1474 & 2-dimethylaminoethyl ester & 1.23 & - & - & - & - & - & 1.48 & 1.35 \\
9. & 2168 & Fumaric acid, cyclopentopentyl ester & 1.3 & - & 2.3 & - & 1.33 & - & 3.4 & 2.08 \\
10. & 2498 & (hydroxymethyl)ethyl ester & 1.55 & 1.69 & 1.64 & - & - & - & - & 1.62 \\
11. & 2906 & Bis (2-ethylhexyl) phosphate & 4.29 & - & - & - & - & - & - & 4.29 \\
12. & 2713 & Ethyl (2,Z,Z)-9,12-octadecanoate & 2.02 & 2.12 & - & - & - & - & 2.19 & 2.11 \\
13. & 2228 & 9-Octadecamide & 1.2 & - & 1.6 & - & - & - & 1.48 & 1.42 \\
14. & 2739 & Stigmaster & 3.45 & 1.77 & 4.39 & 2.26 & 1.77 & 1.64 & 4.46 & 2.82 \\
15. & 2735 & \(\gamma\)-Sitosterol & 8.2 & 2.79 & 6.45 & 4.99 & 4.85 & 7.2 & 9.3 & 6.25 \\
16. & 2869 & Olean-12-en-3e & 2.44 & 1.1 & - & 1.25 & - & 1.73 & 3.5 & 2.0 \\
17. & 2848 & Luppel & 7.3 & - & 9.74 & - & - & - & 14.2 & 10.41 \\
18. & 2994 & Methyl communae & 9.17 & 8.23 & 7.56 & 6.3 & 9.53 & 9.66 & 10.14 & 8.65 \\
19. & 2987 & Lup-209/en-3-yl-acetate & 5.2 & 7.32 & 5.6 & - & - & - & 6.75 & 6.21 \\
20. & 2842 & Lup-20 (29)-en-3-yl, acetate, (3,beta) & 5.32 & 27.99 & - & - & - & - & 1.65 \\
21. & 1293 & 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol & - & 1.82 & - & 2.09 & - & - & - & 1.95 \\
22 & 1528 & 2-dimethylaminoethyl ester & 2.18 & - & - & - & - & - & - & 2.18 \\
23. & 1779 & Octanoic acid, octyl ester & - & 1.04 & - & - & - & - & - & 1.04 \\
24. & 2058 & 2H-Pyram-2-one, 6-2-E(3-dyl) & - & 1.22 & - & 2.4 & 3.23 & - & - & 2.28 \\
25. & 3149 & Vitamin E & - & 2.49 & 2.5 & - & - & - & 4.9 & 3.29 \\
26. & 2873 & Amyrin, acetate & 1.2 & 1.39 & 1.4 & 1.46 & 3.2 & 3.18 & 4.8 & 2.37 \\
27. & 1612 & Hexadecane & - & - & 1.09 & - & - & - & - & 1.09 \\
28. & 1386 & 11A-3,34,44,5,7a-pc-cathy-dro-1,1,4,7 & - & - & 1.24 & - & - & - & - & 1.24 \\
29. & 1574 & 1-tetradecanol, acrylate & - & - & 3.47 & - & - & - & - & 3.47 \\
30. & 1852 & 5.69-Tetadecadecinic acid, & - & - & 2.65 & - & - & - & - & 2.65 \\
31. & 1759 & Lolioliide & - & - & 1.08 & - & - & - & 2.29 & 1.68 \\
32. & 2082 & 2-heptenedicide acid, 4-cyclopropyl- & - & - & 1.81 & - & - & - & - & 1.81 \\
33. & 2045 & 3,7,11,15-tetramethyl-2-hexadecen-1-ol & - & - & 1.49 & - & - & - & - & 1.49 \\
34. & 3036 & Benzothiazole, 2-hydroxyethyltibility- & - & - & 2.75 & - & - & - & - & 2.75 \\
35. & 2117 & 1-Hepttadiene, 2-methyl-6-phenyl & - & - & 2.47 & - & - & - & - & 2.47 \\
36. & 2048 & 1-S-Hexadecane, 2-5-th-methphenyl-yl- & - & 2.3 & - & - & - & - & 2.3 \\
37. & 2325 & 13-hexadecadec-the-0-2-one & - & - & 1.43 & - & - & - & - & 1.43 \\
38.