hexadecane

woody hydrocarbon

Found in 25 ingredients across the CompKitchen flavor graph.

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

2D Lewis Structure

Formula: C16H34
Molecular weight: 226.44 g/mol
PubChem CID: 11006 — full record on PubChem

Properties

Odor description: alkane
Odor threshold — in a food matrix: 0.710 ppb – 600 ppb median 23.1 ppb · 7 published values · see all 7 with sources
Volatility: low
CAS number: 544-76-3
Retention index: 1600

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

0.710 ppb – 600 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
0.100 ppb	water (food: apple)	Literature corpus	11302210
Flagged: 231× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden.
0.710 ppb	water (food: tomato)	Literature corpus	27128659
5.7 ppb	water (food: tea)	Literature corpus	33347483, 36540235, 41647422
23.1 ppb SIDA	water (food: unknown)	Literature corpus	32625638, 20858266, 24441709 +17
28.4 ppb	water (food: beer)	Literature corpus	35292687
117 ppb	water (food: fish)	Literature corpus	36950329
600 ppb SIDA	water (food: beef)	Literature corpus	32625638, 11302210, 20858266 +24

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 (23.079500000000003 ppb, the engine's canonical value — see the 7 published values). OAV ≥ 1 = perceptible.

Food	Concentration (ppb)	OAV	Source
tea	64.0	2.77	—
fish	53.9	2.33	—
beer	43.0	1.86	—
beef	1.0	0.04	—
tomato	0.7	0.03	—
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 hexadecane. 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 hexadecane in it. Full concentrations are in the OAV table above.

617 cmpds

527 cmpds

147 cmpds

239 cmpds