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2-methylpropan-1-ol

floral alcohol Key food odorant

Found in 3 ingredients across the CompKitchen flavor graph.

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

Key food odorant (individualist)

Dunkel et al. 2014

Identified in the meta-analysis of 227 food samples as one of 151 individualist odorants — appears in <5% of foods, carries the diagnostic signature of specific ingredients. Characteristic odor: malty.

Source: Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2014, 53, 7124–7143

Properties

Odor threshold — orthonasal, in clean water
1000 ppb – 19000 ppb median 7000 ppb · 3 published values · see all 14 with sources
CAS number
78-83-1
Retention index
1103
Not in FEMA GRAS publications 1-33. Of 3,367 listed flavoring substances, none match this compound name. May still be food-safe under other regulatory routes (FDA 21 CFR 172, EFSA, JECFA) — check femaflavor.org for the authoritative current list.

Published thresholds

14 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

1000 ppb – 19000 ppb

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

Threshold Matrix Source Paper
1000 ppb SIDA water Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies —
7000 ppb water_odor Leffingwell —
19000 ppb SIDA water Dunkel 2014 —

In a food matrix

7.8 ppb – 654 ppb

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

Threshold Matrix Source Paper
3.5 ppb water (food: wine) Literature corpus 38846797, 40467248
Flagged: 156× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden.
7.8 ppb water (food: rice) Literature corpus 38846797, 40467248
550 ppb water (food: reference standard (water)) Literature corpus 38846797, 40467248
621 ppb water (food: unknown) Literature corpus 38846797, 40467248
654 ppb water (food: bread) Literature corpus 38846797, 40467248

In air

11.0 ppb – 676 ppb

Airborne detection — not comparable to a water threshold.

Threshold Matrix Source Paper
11.0 ppb air Nagata 2003 —
676 ppb air (HS_hellman_small) Cometto-Muñiz (PMC) —

Other matrix

180 ppb – 10069 ppb

Measured in a non-aqueous medium (oil, starch, cellulose).

Threshold Matrix Source Paper
180 ppb wine matrix (12% ethanol) (food: rum / red wine) Literature corpus 38846797, 40467248
500 ppb wine (food: red wine (cabernet sauvignon)) Literature corpus 38846797, 40467248
10000 ppb ethanol/water (food: rum / red wine) Literature corpus 38846797, 40467248
10069 ppb ethanol/water 40/60 (food: rum (aged)) Literature corpus 38846797, 40467248

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 share

Every ingredient known to contain 2-methylpropan-1-ol. 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-methylpropan-1-ol in it.

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