o-cymene

herbal terpene

Found in 9 ingredients across the CompKitchen flavor graph.

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

2D Lewis Structure

Formula: C10H14
Molecular weight: 134.22 g/mol
PubChem CID: 10703 — full record on PubChem

Properties

Odor description: ginger, chili
Odor threshold — in a food matrix: 3.6 ppb – 513 ppb median 11.6 ppb · 7 published values · see all 7 with sources
Volatility: high
CAS number: 527-84-4
Retention index: 1022

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

3.6 ppb – 513 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
3.6 ppb	water (food: beer)	Literature corpus	38698043
4.7 ppb	water (food: tea)	Literature corpus	38690105, 39996838
5.8 ppb	water (food: rice)	Literature corpus	40594787
11.6 ppb	water (food: lime)	Literature corpus	30972045
94.0 ppb	water (food: unknown)	Literature corpus	24137478, 24943828, 25520854 +29
119 ppb	water (food: milk)	Literature corpus	33963300
513 ppb	water (food: rum)	Literature corpus	37284321, 38974992

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

Food	Concentration (ppb)	OAV	Source
rice	942.0	81.1 ⚡	—
rum	16.8	1.45	—
lime	13.7	1.18	—
milk	12.5	1.08	—
tea	3.8	0.33	—
beer	3.0	0.25	—

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 o-cymene. 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 o-cymene in it. Full concentrations are in the OAV table above.

30 cmpds

65 cmpds

116 cmpds

139 cmpds