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germacrene b

herbal terpenoid

Found in 10 ingredients across the CompKitchen flavor graph.

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

2D Lewis structure of germacrene b
2D Lewis Structure
Formula
C15H24
Molecular weight
204.35 g/mol
PubChem CID
5281519 — full record on PubChem

Properties

Odor description
woody, earthy, spicy
Odor threshold — in a food matrix
1432 ppb – 1567 ppb median 717 ppb · 4 published values · see all 4 with sources
Volatility
medium
CAS number
15423-57-1
Retention index
1559
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.

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
germacrene-beta

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.

wood, earth, spice Flavornet Cas, Flavornet Name, Flavordb Odor Column 3 sources agree
—
woody earthy spicy FlavorDB 2.0
8
woody, earthy, spicy shown above Llm Adjudicated
—

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

4 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

1432 ppb – 1567 ppb

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

Threshold Matrix Source Paper
0.090 ppb water (food: grape) Literature corpus 15740053, 23122094
Flagged: 7964× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden.
1.2 ppb water (food: tea) Literature corpus 15740053, 17965761, 23122094 +18
Flagged: 592× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden.
1432 ppb water (food: unknown) Literature corpus 17965761, 27664650, 27941612 +15
1567 ppb water (food: rum) Literature corpus 35454969

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 (716.7972500000001 ppb, the engine's canonical value — see the 4 published values). OAV ≥ 1 = perceptible.

Food Concentration (ppb) OAV Source
rum 1573.0 2.19 —
tea 1.5 0.00 —
grape 1.4 0.00 —

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 share

Every ingredient known to contain germacrene b. 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 germacrene b in it. Full concentrations are in the OAV table above.

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