Skip to main content

2-decenal

green aldehyde

Found in 51 ingredients across the CompKitchen flavor graph.

Look up another compound — search by name, CAS number, PubChem CID, or FEMA #.

2D Lewis structure of 2-decenal
2D Lewis Structure
Formula
C10H18O
Molecular weight
154.25 g/mol
PubChem CID
5283345 — full record on PubChem

Properties

Odor description
fatty, fried, tallow, orange peel, green
Odor threshold — orthonasal, in clean water
0.350 ppb – 5.2 ppb median 2.8 ppb · 2 published values · see all 13 with sources
Volatility
medium
CAS number
3913-71-1
Retention index
1262
Regulatory · United States

FEMA GRAS — Generally Recognized As Safe for flavoring use

~ Likely match
FEMA number
2366
GRAS publication
GRAS 3
FEMA primary name
2-DECENAL-Decenaldehyde

Use-level matrix not extracted for this substance — check the source publication for current ppm guidance.

Source: FEMA GRAS publications 1-33.

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.

Descriptions on file

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.

tallow Flavornet Cas, Flavornet Name, Flavordb Odor Column 3 sources agree
—
waxy, orange, fatty Flavornet Cas
—
fruity, earthy, nutty, smoky, apple FlavorDB 2.0, Flavordb Odor Column 2 sources agree
4
green FlavorDB 2.0, Flavordb Odor Column 2 sources agree
2
fatty fried citrus FlavorDB 2.0
21
apple, potato, cooked, rancid, almond FlavorDB 2.0
3

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

13 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

0.350 ppb – 5.2 ppb

The reference measurement — smelled in water. OAV is computed against this.

Threshold Matrix Source Paper
0.350 ppb water_odor Leffingwell —
5.2 ppb water/ethanol 6:4 (food: american bourbon whisky) Literature corpus —

In a food matrix

0.270 ppb – 96.0 ppb

Measured in a real food, where the matrix shifts detection — not a clean-water value.

Threshold Matrix Source Paper
0.270 ppb water (food: reference standard (water)) Literature corpus —
0.385 ppb water (food: peach) Literature corpus —
0.400 ppb water (food: beef vegetable gravy) Literature corpus —
0.400 ppb water (food: pork vegetable gravy) Literature corpus —
2.2 ppb water (food: tea) Literature corpus —
13.0 ppb water (food: chocolate) Literature corpus —
37.0 ppb water (food: fish) Literature corpus —
96.0 ppb water (food: unknown) Literature corpus —
821 ppb water (food: rum) Literature corpus —
Flagged: 108× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden.
1271 ppb water (food: ginger) Literature corpus —
Flagged: 168× 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

230 ppb

Tasted rather than smelled — a different sense, not comparable.

Threshold Matrix Source Paper
230 ppb water_flavor Leffingwell —

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.

Where you'd actually smell it

Odor Activity Value = measured concentration ÷ odor threshold (2.17 ppb, the engine's canonical value — see the 13 published values). OAV ≥ 1 = perceptible.

Food Concentration (ppb) OAV Source
olive oil 40000.0 18433 ⚡ —
olive 40000.0 18433 ⚡ —
peach 539.3 249 ⚡ Corpus paper
bread 400.0 184 ⚡ PMID 38840722
beef 323.0 149 ⚡ Corpus paper
french fry 180.0 83.0 ⚡ Corpus paper
ginger 31.4 14.5 ⚡ Corpus paper
fish 7.0 3.23 Corpus paper
tea 1.2 0.56 Corpus paper
chocolate 0.4 0.18 Corpus paper
rum 0.0 0.01 Corpus paper
rice 0.0 0.00 —
coffee 0.0 0.00 —
mushroom 0.0 0.00 —

Concentrations from PubMed Central Open Access papers (free literature corpus, MIT-style licensed). Copper = OAV ≥ 10 (strongly perceptible). Green = OAV ≥ 1 (perceptible).

Found in

Measured impact first, then profile share

Every ingredient known to contain 2-decenal. 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 2-decenal in it. Full concentrations are in the OAV table above.

See all 51 ingredients with Pro

The inverted compound index is a Pro feature — reverse-search any of 5,240 flavor molecules across the full graph.

Into the chemistry?

Get a molecule-level pairing breakdown each week — which ingredients share a compound, and why it matters at the table. Free, no spam.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Try the pairing tools to see which ingredient combinations rely on 2-decenal, or compare two ingredients side-by-side.