1-nonanal
green aldehyde Key food odorantFound in 13 ingredients across the CompKitchen flavor graph.
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Key food odorant (intermediary)
Dunkel et al. 2014Identified in the meta-analysis of 227 food samples as one of 57 intermediary odorants — appears in 5–25% of foods. Characteristic odor: citrus, fatty, soapy.
Properties
- Odor description
- fatty, waxy, citrus, green, rose
- Odor threshold — orthonasal, in clean water
- 1.0 ppb – 3.0 ppb median 2.0 ppb · 2 published values · see all 38 with sources
- CAS number
- 124-19-6
- Retention index
- 1105
How this molecule is described
Sources disagree about odour more often than they disagree about chemistry. Rather than show one answer, here is every description on file with how many ingredient records carry it.
Ordered by how many independent descriptor streams give each wording, then by how often it appears. The bar is still replication — one source copied onto many ingredients scores high there — so the two can disagree.
Bars are the share of ingredient records carrying each description. High agreement means the sources replicate each other — not necessarily that they are right.
Published thresholds
38 measured values from the literature. Grouped by what was actually measured — a threshold smelled in clean water, tasted in the mouth, or measured in a real food are three different quantities and are not pooled.
Orthonasal, in clean water
1.0 ppb – 3.0 ppbThe reference measurement — smelled in water. OAV is computed against this.
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0 ppb | water_odor | Leffingwell | — |
| 3.0 ppb SIDA | water | Rychlik 1998 · 2 studies | — |
In a food matrix
0.200 ppb – 246 ppbMeasured in a real food, where the matrix shifts detection — not a clean-water value.
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.044 ppb | water (food: beer) | Literature corpus | — |
| Flagged: 183× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden. | |||
| 0.200 ppb | water (food: milk) | Literature corpus | — |
| 0.250 ppb | water (food: grape) | Literature corpus | — |
| 0.600 ppb | water (food: chocolate) | Literature corpus | — |
| 0.740 ppb | water (food: apple) | Literature corpus | — |
| 0.860 ppb | water (food: mushroom) | Literature corpus | — |
| 1.0 ppb | water (food: reference standard (water)) | Literature corpus | — |
| 1.0 ppb | water (food: goat milk) | Literature corpus | — |
| 1.2 ppb | water (food: orange) | Literature corpus | — |
| 1.7 ppb | water (food: lime) | Literature corpus | — |
| 2.0 ppb | water (food: honey) | Literature corpus | — |
| 2.0 ppb | water (food: wheat) | Literature corpus | — |
| 2.8 ppb | water (food: reference standard (water)) | Literature corpus | — |
| 5.0 ppb | water (food: hand-squeezed grapefruit juice) | Literature corpus | — |
| 8.0 ppb | water (food: tea) | Literature corpus | — |
| 8.0 ppb | water (food: smoked cooked loin (pork)) | Literature corpus | — |
| 12.0 ppb | water (food: fish) | Literature corpus | — |
| 13.2 ppb | water (food: unknown) | Literature corpus | — |
| 13.4 ppb | water (food: rum) | Literature corpus | — |
| 14.3 ppb | water (food: pork) | Literature corpus | — |
| 17.3 ppb | water (food: cheese) | Literature corpus | — |
| 69.0 ppb | water (food: soy sauce) | Literature corpus | — |
| 98.0 ppb | water (food: lamb) | Literature corpus | — |
| 201 ppb | water (food: wine) | Literature corpus | — |
| 246 ppb | water (food: peach) | Literature corpus | — |
| 1084 ppb | water (food: tomato) | Literature corpus | — |
| Flagged: 136× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden. | |||
| 1099 ppb | water (food: rice) | Literature corpus | — |
| Flagged: 137× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden. | |||
| 1100 ppb | water (food: lemon) | Literature corpus | — |
| Flagged: 138× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden. | |||
| 1103 ppb | water (food: bread) | Literature corpus | — |
| Flagged: 138× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden. | |||
| 1113 ppb | water (food: beef) | Literature corpus | — |
| Flagged: 139× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden. | |||
| 1385 ppb | water (food: olive oil) | Literature corpus | — |
| Flagged: 173× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden. | |||
Retronasal / in-mouth
9.0 ppb – 260 ppbTasted rather than smelled — a different sense, not comparable.
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9.0 ppb | water_flavor | Leffingwell | — |
| 260 ppb SIDA | oil_retronasal | Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies | — |
In air
0.340 ppb – 0.537 ppbAirborne detection — not comparable to a water threshold.
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.340 ppb | air | Nagata 2003 | — |
| 0.537 ppb | air (C2_cometto_muniz_abraham) | Cometto-Muñiz (PMC) | — |
Other matrix
7200 ppbMeasured in a non-aqueous medium (oil, starch, cellulose).
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7200 ppb SIDA | oil_orthonasal | Rychlik 1998 · 2 studies | — |
Only values we can attribute are listed. Where a compendium's licence does not permit public attribution its figures are omitted here, so every number on this page traces to a citable source.
Found in
Measured impact first, then profile shareEvery ingredient known to contain 1-nonanal. Ingredients with a measured concentration come first, ranked by odour activity; the rest follow by how large a share of that ingredient's profile this molecule is. The figure beside each is how many different compounds that ingredient has in total — not the concentration of 1-nonanal in it.
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