pentanal

green aldehyde

Found in 162 ingredients across the CompKitchen flavor graph.

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

2D Lewis Structure

Formula: C5H10O
Molecular weight: 86.13 g/mol
PubChem CID: 8063 — full record on PubChem

Properties

Odor description: almond, malt, pungent
Odor threshold — orthonasal, in clean water: 20.0 ppb – 27.0 ppb median 23.5 ppb · 2 published values · see all 23 with sources
Volatility: high
CAS number: 110-62-3
Retention index: 700

Regulatory · United States

FEMA GRAS — Generally Recognized As Safe for flavoring use

? Partial match

FEMA number: 3413
GRAS publication: GRAS 7
FEMA primary name: 2-METHYLPENTANAL

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

Source: FEMA GRAS publications 1-33.

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.

Also filed as

n-valeraldehyde pentanal-m valeraldehyde

Same molecule, unified here — previously counted and displayed as separate compounds.

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.

almond, malt, pungent shown above Flavornet Cas, Flavornet Name, Flavordb Odor Column 3 sources agree

—

almond, berry, bready, fermented, fruity, malt, nutty, pungent FlavorDB 2.0

109

almond, malt, pungent, fermented, bready, fruity, nutty, berry FlavorDB 2.0

grassy, fruity FlavorDB 2.0

fermented, bready aroma FlavorDB 2.0

mint-like 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

23 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

20.0 ppb – 27.0 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
20.0 ppb SIDA	water	Rychlik 1998 · 3 studies	—
27.0 ppb	water_odor	Leffingwell	—

In a food matrix

0.660 ppb – 969 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
0.660 ppb	water (food: truffle)	Literature corpus	33995294, 36337648
0.820 ppb	water (food: coffee)	Literature corpus	33995294, 36337648
3.6 ppb	water (food: lime)	Literature corpus	33995294, 36337648
5.0 ppb	water (food: fish)	Literature corpus	33995294, 36337648
6.0 ppb	water (food: onion)	Literature corpus	33995294, 36337648
12.0 ppb	water (food: reference standard (water))	Literature corpus	33995294, 36337648
12.0 ppb	water (food: goat milk)	Literature corpus	33995294, 36337648
17.0 ppb	water (food: melon)	Literature corpus	33995294, 36337648
25.5 ppb	water (food: unknown)	Literature corpus	33995294, 36337648
69.5 ppb	water (food: rum)	Literature corpus	33995294, 36337648
184 ppb	water (food: peanut)	Literature corpus	33995294, 36337648
350 ppb	water (food: rice)	Literature corpus	33995294, 36337648
733 ppb	water (food: tea)	Literature corpus	33995294, 36337648
969 ppb	water (food: olive oil)	Literature corpus	33995294, 36337648

Retronasal / in-mouth

31.0 ppb – 150 ppb

Tasted rather than smelled — a different sense, not comparable.

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
31.0 ppb	water_flavor	Leffingwell	—
76.0 ppb SIDA	water_retronasal	Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies	—
150 ppb SIDA	oil_retronasal	Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies	—

In air

0.410 ppb – 5000 ppb

Airborne detection — not comparable to a water threshold.

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
0.410 ppb	air	Nagata 2003	—
5000 ppb	air (C1_cometto_muniz_cain)	Cometto-Muñiz (PMC)	—

Other matrix

240 ppb – 267 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
240 ppb SIDA	oil_orthonasal	Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies	—
267 ppb SIDA	meat_water	Rychlik 1998 · 1 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.

Where you'd actually smell it

Odor Activity Value = measured concentration ÷ odor threshold (18.5 ppb, the engine's canonical value — see the 23 published values). OAV ≥ 1 = perceptible.

Food	Concentration (ppb)	OAV	Source
tea	735.0	39.7 ⚡	Corpus paper
peanut	700.8	37.9 ⚡	Corpus paper
rice	43.2	2.34	Corpus paper
pork	9.2	0.50	Corpus paper
rum	8.1	0.44	Corpus paper
onion	5.7	0.31	Corpus paper
coffee	3.3	0.18	Corpus paper
lime	2.7	0.15	Corpus paper
fish	2.0	0.11	—
melon	0.7	0.04	—
olive oil	0.4	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 pentanal. 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 pentanal in it. Full concentrations are in the OAV table above.

617 cmpds

388 cmpds

432 cmpds

431 cmpds