heptanal
green aldehydeFound in 448 ingredients across the CompKitchen flavor graph.
Look up another compound — search by name, CAS number, PubChem CID, or FEMA #.
- Formula
- C7H14O
- Molecular weight
- 114.19 g/mol
- PubChem CID
- 8130 — full record on PubChem
Properties
- Odor description
- fat, citrus, rancid
- Odor threshold — orthonasal, in clean water
- 3.0 ppb – 4.4 ppb median 3.7 ppb · 2 published values · see all 27 with sources
- Volatility
- high
- CAS number
- 111-71-7
- Retention index
- 901
FEMA GRAS — Generally Recognized As Safe for flavoring use
- FEMA number
- 2540
- GRAS publication
- GRAS 3
- FEMA primary name
- HEPTANAL
Use-level matrix not extracted for this substance — check the source publication for current ppm guidance.
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.
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.
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
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
3.0 ppb – 4.4 ppbThe reference measurement — smelled in water. OAV is computed against this.
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3.0 ppb | water_odor | Leffingwell | — |
| 4.4 ppb SIDA | water | Rychlik 1998 · 2 studies | — |
In a food matrix
3.0 ppb – 1203 ppbMeasured in a real food, where the matrix shifts detection — not a clean-water value.
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.200 ppb | water (food: chocolate) | Literature corpus | — |
| Flagged: 350× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden. | |||
| 0.450 ppb | water (food: lime) | Literature corpus | — |
| Flagged: 156× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden. | |||
| 0.640 ppb | water (food: melon) | Literature corpus | — |
| Flagged: 109× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden. | |||
| 3.0 ppb | water (food: reference standard (water)) | Literature corpus | — |
| 3.0 ppb | water (food: goat milk) | Literature corpus | — |
| 3.8 ppb | water (food: pork) | Literature corpus | — |
| 6.0 ppb | water (food: fish) | Literature corpus | — |
| 20.0 ppb | water (food: milk) | Literature corpus | — |
| 55.0 ppb | water (food: soy sauce) | Literature corpus | — |
| 70.0 ppb | water (food: lamb) | Literature corpus | — |
| 70.1 ppb | water (food: unknown) | Literature corpus | — |
| 184 ppb | water (food: wine) | Literature corpus | — |
| 374 ppb | water (food: peanut) | Literature corpus | — |
| 438 ppb | water (food: tea) | Literature corpus | — |
| 587 ppb | water (food: olive oil) | Literature corpus | — |
| 902 ppb | water (food: ginger) | Literature corpus | — |
| 1154 ppb | water (food: beef) | Literature corpus | — |
| 1170 ppb | water (food: bread) | Literature corpus | — |
| 1203 ppb | water (food: rice) | Literature corpus | — |
Retronasal / in-mouth
21.0 ppb – 50.0 ppbTasted rather than smelled — a different sense, not comparable.
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 21.0 ppb | water_flavor | Leffingwell | — |
| 21.0 ppb SIDA | water_retronasal | Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies | — |
| 50.0 ppb SIDA | oil_retronasal | Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies | — |
In air
0.180 ppbAirborne detection — not comparable to a water threshold.
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.180 ppb | air | Nagata 2003 | — |
Other matrix
230 ppb – 1725 ppbMeasured in a non-aqueous medium (oil, starch, cellulose).
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 230 ppb SIDA | meat_water | Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies | — |
| 1725 ppb SIDA | oil_orthonasal | Rychlik 1998 · 2 studies | — |
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 shareEvery ingredient known to contain heptanal. 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 heptanal in it.
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