alpha-limonene
herbal terpenoid Key food odorantFound in 2 ingredients across the CompKitchen flavor graph.
Look up another compound — search by name, CAS number, PubChem CID, or FEMA #.
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.
Properties
- Odor threshold — orthonasal, in clean water
- 10.0 ppb 1 published value · see all 33 with sources
- CAS number
- 138-86-3
FEMA GRAS — Generally Recognized As Safe for flavoring use
- FEMA number
- 2633
- GRAS publication
- GRAS 3
- FEMA primary name
- d-LIMONENE
Use-level matrix not extracted for this substance — check the source publication for current ppm guidance.
Published thresholds
33 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
10.0 ppbThe reference measurement — smelled in water. OAV is computed against this.
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10.0 ppb | water_odor | Leffingwell | — |
In a food matrix
0.300 ppb – 1770 ppbMeasured in a real food, where the matrix shifts detection — not a clean-water value.
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.175 ppb | water (food: peach) | Literature corpus | 35496034 |
| Flagged: 159× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden. | |||
| 0.300 ppb | water (food: chocolate) | Literature corpus | 35496034 |
| 0.300 ppb | water (food: honey) | Literature corpus | 35496034 |
| 0.400 ppb | water (food: milk) | Literature corpus | 35496034 |
| 1.0 ppb | water (food: apple) | Literature corpus | 35496034 |
| 1.5 ppb | water (food: mango) | Literature corpus | 35496034 |
| 1.7 ppb | water (food: lamb) | Literature corpus | 35496034 |
| 3.0 ppb | water (food: ginger) | Literature corpus | 35496034 |
| 4.0 ppb | water (food: tomato) | Literature corpus | 35496034 |
| 4.5 ppb | water (food: tea) | Literature corpus | 35496034 |
| 6.0 ppb | water (food: fish) | Literature corpus | 35496034 |
| 12.5 ppb | water (food: beer) | Literature corpus | 35496034 |
| 14.7 ppb | water (food: mushroom) | Literature corpus | 35496034 |
| 27.8 ppb | water (food: rice) | Literature corpus | 35496034 |
| 28.0 ppb | water (food: unknown) | Literature corpus | 35496034 |
| 34.0 ppb | water (food: orange juice (reconstituted from concentrate)) | Literature corpus | 35496034 |
| 38.2 ppb | water (food: grape) | Literature corpus | 35496034 |
| 56.8 ppb | water (food: lemon) | Literature corpus | 35496034 |
| 66.0 ppb | water (food: lime) | Literature corpus | 35496034 |
| 86.3 ppb | water (food: orange) | Literature corpus | 35496034 |
| 200 ppb | water (food: hand-squeezed grapefruit juice) | Literature corpus | 35496034 |
| 224 ppb | water (food: wine) | Literature corpus | 35496034 |
| 594 ppb | water (food: peanut) | Literature corpus | 35496034 |
| 1024 ppb | water (food: rum) | Literature corpus | 35496034 |
| 1029 ppb | water (food: bread) | Literature corpus | 35496034 |
| 1204 ppb | water (food: beef) | Literature corpus | 35496034 |
| 1770 ppb | water (food: blueberry) | Literature corpus | 35496034 |
| 656492 ppb | water (food: pepper) | Literature corpus | 35496034 |
| Flagged: 23530× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden. | |||
In air
0.700 ppb – 38.0 ppbAirborne detection — not comparable to a water threshold.
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.700 ppb | air (food: dill seed) | Literature corpus | 35496034 |
| 0.700 ppb | air (food: dill herb) | Literature corpus | 35496034 |
| 10.0 ppb | air (food: reference standard (air)) | Literature corpus | 35496034 |
| 38.0 ppb | air | Nagata 2003 | — |
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 alpha-limonene. 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 alpha-limonene in it.
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