naphthalene

woody hydrocarbon

Found in 44 ingredients across the CompKitchen flavor graph.

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

2D Lewis Structure

Formula: C10H8
Molecular weight: 128.17 g/mol
PubChem CID: 931 — full record on PubChem

Properties

Odor description: tar
Odor threshold — orthonasal, in clean water: 0.440 ppb – 6.0 ppb median 3.2 ppb · 2 published values · see all 15 with sources
Volatility: high
CAS number: 91-20-3
Retention index: 1182

Regulatory · United States

FEMA GRAS — Generally Recognized As Safe for flavoring use

? Partial match

FEMA number: 2768
GRAS publication: GRAS 3
FEMA primary name: B-NAPHTHYL ETHYL ETHER-2-Ethoxynaphthalene

Use-level matrix not extracted for this substance — check the source publication for current ppm guidance.

Source: FEMA GRAS publications 1-33. 1 related FEMA record for this name — verify the exact substance for regulatory use.

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.

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.

tar shown above Flavornet Cas, Flavornet Name, Flavordb Odor Column 3 sources agree

—

dry, pungent, tar, tarry FlavorDB 2.0

stale and woody FlavorDB 2.0

mothball FlavorDB 2.0

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

15 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

0.440 ppb – 6.0 ppb

The reference measurement — smelled in water. OAV is computed against this.

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
0.440 ppb	water	PMC open access	—
6.0 ppb	water	PMC open access	—

In a food matrix

1.1 ppb – 75.0 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
1.1 ppb	water (food: rum)	Literature corpus	38933460
1.3 ppb	water (food: wine)	Literature corpus	41365581
6.4 ppb	water (food: lamb)	Literature corpus	28344493
7.0 ppb	water (food: fish)	Literature corpus	24594176, 36144849, 37003052
10.7 ppb SIDA	water (food: cocoa)	Literature corpus	32902973
11.0 ppb SIDA	water (food: unknown)	Literature corpus	32902973, 11130664, 11837687 +18
19.6 ppb SIDA	water (food: mango)	Literature corpus	32625638, 29211747
75.0 ppb	water (food: soy sauce)	Literature corpus	17898513
1179 ppb	water (food: bread)	Literature corpus	41613919
Flagged: 109× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden.
1182 ppb	water (food: beef)	Literature corpus	37701748
Flagged: 109× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden.

In air

1.0 ppb – 60.0 ppb

Airborne detection — not comparable to a water threshold.

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
1.0 ppb	air	PMC open access	—
60.0 ppb	air	PMC open access	—

Other matrix

6.0 ppb

Measured in a non-aqueous medium (oil, starch, cellulose).

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
6.0 ppb	unknown	PMC open access	—

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 (10.7 ppb, the engine's canonical value — see the 15 published values). OAV ≥ 1 = perceptible.

Food	Concentration (ppb)	OAV	Source
bread	1180.0	110 ⚡	Corpus paper
beef	128.0	12.0 ⚡	Corpus paper
rum	99.5	9.30	Corpus paper
cocoa	32.5	3.04	Corpus paper
lamb	7.8	0.73	Corpus paper
fish	6.0	0.56	Corpus paper
wine	2.2	0.20	Corpus paper
soybean sauce	0.6	0.06	—
mango	0.2	0.02	—

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

484 cmpds

158 cmpds

410 cmpds

14 cmpds