ethyl n-butyrate

fruity ester Key food odorant

Found in 1 ingredient 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. 2014

Identified in the meta-analysis of 227 food samples as one of 57 intermediary odorants — appears in 5–25% of foods. Characteristic odor: fruity.

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

Properties

Odor description: fruity
Odor threshold — orthonasal, in clean water: 1.0 ppb – 9.5 ppb median 1.0 ppb · 3 published values · see all 27 with sources
CAS number: 105-54-4

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

27 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

1.0 ppb – 9.5 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
1.0 ppb	water_odor	Leffingwell	—
1.0 ppb SIDA	water	Rychlik 1998 · 3 studies	—
9.5 ppb	water/ethanol 6:4 (food: american bourbon whisky)	Literature corpus	17499755, 19753606, 25857434 +9

In a food matrix

0.015 ppb – 18.0 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
0.015 ppb	water (food: beer)	Literature corpus	17499755, 33889833
0.225 ppb	water (food: strawberry)	Literature corpus	17499755, 19753606, 25857434 +9
0.400 ppb	water (food: grape)	Literature corpus	17499755, 19753606, 25857434 +9
0.760 ppb	water (food: pink guava)	Literature corpus	17499755, 19753606, 25857434 +9
0.760 ppb	water (food: reference standard (water))	Literature corpus	17499755, 19753606, 25857434 +9
1.0 ppb	water (food: apple)	Literature corpus	17499755, 19753606, 25857434 +9
1.0 ppb	water (food: orange juice (reconstituted from concentrate))	Literature corpus	17499755, 19753606, 25857434 +9
1.0 ppb	water (food: hand-squeezed grapefruit juice)	Literature corpus	17499755, 19753606, 25857434 +9
1.1 ppb	water (food: orange)	Literature corpus	37515910
2.0 ppb	water (food: rice)	Literature corpus	38846797, 40467248
18.0 ppb	water (food: tea)	Literature corpus	32796601, 35956905
152 ppb	water (food: unknown)	Literature corpus	19753606, 25857434, 33488534 +2
Flagged: 152× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden.
342 ppb	water (food: wine)	Literature corpus	17499755, 19753606, 25857434 +9
Flagged: 342× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden.
807 ppb	water (food: lime)	Literature corpus	17499755, 19753606, 25857434 +9
Flagged: 807× 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

0.100 ppb – 3.5 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
0.100 ppb SIDA	water_retronasal	Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies	—
3.5 ppb SIDA	oil_retronasal	Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies	—
450 ppb	water_flavor	Leffingwell	—
Flagged: 129× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden.

In air

0.040 ppb

Airborne detection — not comparable to a water threshold.

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
0.040 ppb	air	Nagata 2003	—

Other matrix

9.5 ppb – 28.0 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
9.5 ppb	ethanol/water (food: rum / red wine)	Literature corpus	17499755, 19753606, 25857434 +9
9.5 ppb	ethanol/water 40/60 (food: rum (aged))	Literature corpus	17499755, 19753606, 25857434 +9
9.5 ppb	ethanol/water 40/60 (food: rum (young))	Literature corpus	17499755, 19753606, 25857434 +9
20.0 ppb	wine matrix (12% ethanol) (food: rum / red wine)	Literature corpus	17499755, 19753606, 25857434 +9
28.0 ppb SIDA	oil_orthonasal	Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies	—
28.0 ppb	oil (sunflower oil) (food: gouda cheese)	Literature corpus	17499755, 19753606, 25857434 +9

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 ethyl n-butyrate. 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 ethyl n-butyrate in it.

yogurt

dairy

152 cmpds

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