Skip to main content

cymene

herbal terpene

Found in 3 ingredients across the CompKitchen flavor graph.

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

Properties

Odor description
eucalyptus, chemical, pine, floral
Odor threshold — in a food matrix
0.100 ppb – 536 ppb median 8.4 ppb · 16 published values · see all 16 with sources
CAS number
99-87-6
Regulatory · United States

FEMA GRAS — Generally Recognized As Safe for flavoring use

? Partial match
FEMA number
2356
GRAS publication
GRAS 3
FEMA primary name
p-CYMENE-Cymene; Cymol

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

Source: FEMA GRAS publications 1-33. 2 related FEMA records for this name — verify the exact substance for regulatory use.

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.

Also filed as
ρ-cymene

Same molecule, unified here — previously counted and displayed as separate compounds.

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.

eucalyptus, chemical, pine, floral shown above FlavorDB 2.0
2
eucalyptus, chemical Flavordb Odor Column
—
pine Flavordb Odor Column
—
floral Flavordb Odor Column
—

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

16 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.

In a food matrix

0.100 ppb – 536 ppb

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

Threshold Matrix Source Paper
0.020 ppb water (food: lime) Literature corpus 24339945, 34641307, 40003692 +1
Flagged: 422× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden.
0.100 ppb water (food: chocolate) Literature corpus 24339945, 34641307, 40003692 +1
0.800 ppb water (food: rice) Literature corpus 24339945, 34641307, 40003692 +1
1.2 ppb water (food: lemon) Literature corpus 24339945, 34641307, 40003692 +1
1.4 ppb water (food: orange) Literature corpus 24339945, 34641307, 40003692 +1
1.9 ppb water (food: grape) Literature corpus 24339945, 34641307, 40003692 +1
2.9 ppb water (food: lamb) Literature corpus 24339945, 34641307, 40003692 +1
8.4 ppb water (food: tomato) Literature corpus 24339945, 34641307, 40003692 +1
8.5 ppb water (food: fish) Literature corpus 24339945, 34641307, 40003692 +1
12.1 ppb water (food: rum) Literature corpus 24339945, 34641307, 40003692 +1
24.0 ppb water (food: unknown) Literature corpus 24339945, 34641307, 40003692 +1
282 ppb water (food: wine) Literature corpus 24339945, 34641307, 40003692 +1
536 ppb water (food: tea) Literature corpus 24339945, 34641307, 40003692 +1
1024 ppb water (food: bread) Literature corpus 24339945, 34641307, 40003692 +1
Flagged: 121× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden.
1027 ppb water (food: ginger) Literature corpus 24339945, 34641307, 40003692 +1
Flagged: 122× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden.
230120 ppb water (food: pepper) Literature corpus 24339945, 34641307, 40003692 +1
Flagged: 27238× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden.

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 cymene. 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 cymene in it.

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 cymene, or compare two ingredients side-by-side.