Carbon isotope ratios of soil/paleosol organic matter (δ13CSOM) have been used to reconstruct abundance of C3-C4 plants survived in the landscape as the δ13C value of C3 (-27‰) and C4 (-12.5 ‰) plants are distinctly different. In an attempt to reconstruct the abundance of C3 and C4 plants, δ13CSOM have been measured from three soil profiles developed on flood plain of the Gangetic plain, Mohanpur, West Bengal, India. Satellite images reveal that the investigated sediments have been deposited in an oxbow lake setting of the river Ganges. The total organic carbon content of the profile ranges from 0.9% to 0.1%. The δ13CSOM values mostly range from -19.2‰ to -22‰ except a rapid positive excursions of ~5‰ at 1.5 m depth showing enriched value (-14.2‰) in all the three profiles. Based on mass balance calculation using the δ13C values of C3 and C4 plants, the δ13CSOM in the Gangetic plain indicate presence of both C3 and C4 plants in the floodplain. However, characterization of alkanes separated from lipids extracted from the same soil organic matter reveals dominant preferences in short carbon chain (C14, C16, C18, C20) with a little preferences for higher chain (C29, C31, C33). Interestingly, n-alkanes at 1.5 m depth shows very high concentration in short chain n-alkanes. Since the lower chain n-alkane represents aquatic productivity or intense bacterial decomposition and higher chain indicates the contribution from C3-C4 plants, the data from the investigated sedimentary profile shows contribution mostly from aquatic vegetation with a little contribution from terrestrial plants. This implies that before using bulk δ13CSOM value for reconstruction of C3-C4 plants from soil/paleosol, characterization (molecular level) of soil organic matter is required