heptadecane

woody hydrocarbon

Found in 18 ingredients across the CompKitchen flavor graph.

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

2D Lewis Structure

Formula: C17H36
Molecular weight: 240.5 g/mol
PubChem CID: 12398 — full record on PubChem

Properties

Odor description: alkane
Odor threshold — in a food matrix: 2.9 ppb – 1724 ppb median 44.5 ppb · 7 published values · see all 7 with sources
Volatility: low
CAS number: 629-78-7
Retention index: 1699

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

7 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

2.9 ppb – 1724 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
0.200 ppb	water (food: apple)	Literature corpus	11302210
Flagged: 222× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden.
2.9 ppb	water (food: tomato)	Literature corpus	27128659
26.5 ppb	water (food: tea)	Literature corpus	33152893, 33347483, 36540235 +1
44.5 ppb	water (food: cheese)	Literature corpus	38280925
1200 ppb	water (food: beef)	Literature corpus	38974721
1689 ppb SIDA	water (food: unknown)	Literature corpus	32625638, 20858266, 27940415 +9
1724 ppb	water (food: fish)	Literature corpus	36950329

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 (44.46 ppb, the engine's canonical value — see the 7 published values). OAV ≥ 1 = perceptible.

Food	Concentration (ppb)	OAV	Source
fish	291.2	6.55	—
tea	41.8	0.94	—
beef	14.3	0.32	—
cheese	11.0	0.25	—
tomato	2.5	0.06	—
apple	0.3	0.01	—

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 heptadecane. 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 heptadecane in it. Full concentrations are in the OAV table above.

75 cmpds

190 cmpds

277 cmpds

280 cmpds