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germacrene d

woody terpene

Found in 51 ingredients across the CompKitchen flavor graph.

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

2D Lewis structure of germacrene d
2D Lewis Structure
Formula
C15H24
Molecular weight
204.35 g/mol
PubChem CID
5317570 — full record on PubChem

Properties

Odor description
wood, spice
Odor threshold — in a food matrix
0.630 ppb – 1478 ppb median 18.1 ppb · 11 published values · see all 11 with sources
Volatility
medium
CAS number
23986-74-5
Retention index
1481
Regulatory · United States

FEMA GRAS — Generally Recognized As Safe for flavoring use

~ Likely match
FEMA number
4974
GRAS publication
GRAS 30
CAS number
23986-74-5
FEMA primary name
Germacrene D ≥85%

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 0.5 0.5
beverages type i, non-alcoholic 0.2 0.2
beverages, non-alcoholic 0.2 0.2
chewing gum 3.4 4.8
fruit ices 0.3 0.3
hard candy 0.5 0.5
Source: FEMA GRAS publications 1-33.

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-d

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, spice shown above Flavornet Cas, Flavornet Name, Flavordb Odor Column 3 sources agree
—
woody spice FlavorDB 2.0
46

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

11 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

0.630 ppb – 1478 ppb

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

Threshold Matrix Source Paper
0.630 ppb water (food: grape) Literature corpus —
3.6 ppb water (food: ginger) Literature corpus —
5.1 ppb water (food: rice) Literature corpus —
6.3 ppb water (food: tea) Literature corpus —
11.0 ppb water (food: peach) Literature corpus —
18.1 ppb water (food: tomato) Literature corpus —
20.3 ppb water (food: lamb) Literature corpus —
22.6 ppb water (food: honey) Literature corpus —
28.7 ppb water (food: lime) Literature corpus —
749 ppb water (food: rum) Literature corpus —
1478 ppb water (food: unknown) Literature corpus —

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 germacrene d. 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 d in it.

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