3-methyl-1-butanol
floral alcohol Key food odorantFound in 485 ingredients across the CompKitchen flavor graph.
Look up another compound — search by name, CAS number, PubChem CID, or FEMA #.
- Formula
- C5H12O
- Molecular weight
- 88.15 g/mol
- PubChem CID
- 31260 — full record on PubChem
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: malty.
Properties
- Odor description
- whiskey, malt, burnt
- Odor threshold — orthonasal, in clean water
- 275 ppb – 56100 ppb median 1000 ppb · 3 published values · see all 21 with sources
- Volatility
- high
- CAS number
- 123-51-3
- Retention index
- 736
FEMA GRAS — Generally Recognized As Safe for flavoring use
- FEMA number
- 4894
- GRAS publication
- GRAS 29
- CAS number
- 116229-37-9
- FEMA primary name
- 2-Mercapto-3-methyl-1-butanol
Reported use levels (ppm by food category)
Typical vs maximum reported addition levels in finished food. Use as a regulatory ceiling reference — verify against the current GRAS publication for your product category.
| Food category | Typical (ppm) | Maximum (ppm) |
|---|---|---|
| baked goods | 0.001 | 1 |
| beverages, alcoholic | 0.0001 | 0.1 |
| beverages, non-alcoholic | 0.0001 | 0.1 |
| frozen dairy | 0.0001 | 0.1 |
| gelatins and puddings | 0.0001 | 0.1 |
| instant coffee and tea | 0.0001 | 0.1 |
| milk products | 0.0001 | 0.01 |
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.
Same molecule, unified here — previously counted and displayed as separate compounds.
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
21 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
275 ppb – 56100 ppbThe reference measurement — smelled in water. OAV is computed against this.
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 275 ppb | water_odor | Leffingwell | — |
| 1000 ppb SIDA | water | Rychlik 1998 · 3 studies | — |
| 56100 ppb SIDA | water/ethanol 6:4 (food: american bourbon whisky) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 19053838, 28911457 +5 |
In a food matrix
5.0 ppb – 1379 ppbMeasured in a real food, where the matrix shifts detection — not a clean-water value.
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5.0 ppb SIDA | water (food: wine) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 19053838, 28911457 +5 |
| 11.0 ppb | water (food: rice) | Literature corpus | 38846797, 40467248, 41675126 |
| 90.0 ppb | water (food: beef) | Literature corpus | 28911457 |
| 220 ppb SIDA | water (food: reference standard (water)) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 19053838, 28911457 +5 |
| 418 ppb SIDA | water (food: unknown) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 19053838, 40366211 |
| 743 ppb SIDA | water (food: bread) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 19053838, 28911457 +5 |
| 1379 ppb SIDA | water (food: lime) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 41048468 |
Retronasal / in-mouth
170 ppb – 250 ppbTasted rather than smelled — a different sense, not comparable.
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 170 ppb | water_flavor | Leffingwell | — |
| 225 ppb SIDA | oil_retronasal | Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies | — |
| 250 ppb SIDA | water_retronasal | Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies | — |
| 70000 ppb SIDA | beer_retronasal | Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies | — |
| Flagged: 295× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden. | |||
In air
1.7 ppb – 120 ppbAirborne detection — not comparable to a water threshold.
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.7 ppb | air | Nagata 2003 | — |
| 120 ppb | air (HS_hellman_small) | Cometto-Muñiz (PMC) | — |
Other matrix
225 ppb – 56100 ppbMeasured in a non-aqueous medium (oil, starch, cellulose).
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 225 ppb SIDA | oil (sunflower oil) (food: gouda cheese) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 19053838, 28911457 +5 |
| 2000 ppb SIDA | wine (food: red wine (cabernet sauvignon)) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 19053838, 28911457 +5 |
| 5100 ppb SIDA | wine matrix (12% ethanol) (food: rum / red wine) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 19053838, 28911457 +5 |
| 56000 ppb SIDA | ethanol/water (food: rum / red wine) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 19053838, 28911457 +5 |
| 56100 ppb SIDA | ethanol/water 40/60 (food: rum (aged)) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 19053838, 28911457 +5 |
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 (275.0 ppb, the engine's canonical value — see the 21 published values). OAV ≥ 1 = perceptible.
| Food | Concentration (ppb) | OAV | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| rice | 30000.0 | 109 ⚡ | Corpus paper |
| olive oil | 15700.0 | 57.1 ⚡ | Corpus paper |
| lime | 1221.0 | 4.44 | Corpus paper |
| beer | 1146.5 | 4.17 | Corpus paper |
| bread | 744.0 | 2.71 | Corpus paper |
| beef | 14.9 | 0.05 | — |
| wine | 7.0 | 0.03 | — |
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 shareEvery ingredient known to contain 3-methyl-1-butanol. 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 3-methyl-1-butanol in it. Full concentrations are in the OAV table above.
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