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terpinen-4-ol

floral terpenoid

Found in 81 ingredients across the CompKitchen flavor graph.

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

2D Lewis structure of terpinen-4-ol
2D Lewis Structure
Formula
C10H18O
Molecular weight
154.25 g/mol
PubChem CID
11230 — full record on PubChem

Properties

Odor description
earthy, musty, peppery
Odor threshold — in a food matrix
0.310 ppb – 588 ppb median 8.8 ppb · 18 published values · see all 18 with sources
Volatility
medium
CAS number
562-74-3
Retention index
1178
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.

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
4-carvomenthenol 4-terpineol

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.

earthy, musty, peppery shown above Flavornet Cas, Flavornet Name, Flavordb Odor Column 3 sources agree
—
pine FlavorDB 2.0, Flavordb Odor Column 2 sources agree
5
camphor, pine FlavorDB 2.0, Flavordb Odor Column 2 sources agree
1
earth, must, musty, nutmeg, pepper, sweet, turpentine, woody FlavorDB 2.0
56
musty dusty FlavorDB 2.0
10

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

18 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

0.310 ppb – 588 ppb

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

Threshold Matrix Source Paper
0.050 ppb water (food: lemon) Literature corpus —
Flagged: 176× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden.
0.060 ppb water (food: grape) Literature corpus —
Flagged: 147× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden.
0.310 ppb water (food: orange) Literature corpus —
0.430 ppb water (food: fish) Literature corpus —
2.0 ppb water (food: lime) Literature corpus —
3.8 ppb water (food: wine) Literature corpus —
3.9 ppb water (food: ginger) Literature corpus —
7.3 ppb water (food: beer) Literature corpus —
8.1 ppb water (food: rice) Literature corpus —
9.5 ppb water (food: milk) Literature corpus —
69.7 ppb water (food: tea) Literature corpus —
90.0 ppb water (food: soy sauce) Literature corpus —
93.0 ppb water (food: honey) Literature corpus —
130 ppb water (food: chocolate) Literature corpus —
587 ppb water (food: tomato) Literature corpus —
588 ppb water (food: rum) Literature corpus —
1162 ppb water (food: unknown) Literature corpus —
Flagged: 132× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden.
1177 ppb water (food: bread) Literature corpus —
Flagged: 134× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden.

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 (8.807500000000001 ppb, the engine's canonical value — see the 18 published values). OAV ≥ 1 = perceptible.

Food Concentration (ppb) OAV Source
orange 1217.0 138 ⚡ Corpus paper
bread 1171.0 133 ⚡ Corpus paper
rum 603.2 68.5 ⚡ Corpus paper
tomato 598.0 67.9 ⚡ Corpus paper
rice 471.0 53.5 ⚡ Corpus paper
tea 465.6 52.9 ⚡ Corpus paper
grape 250.5 28.4 ⚡ PMID 28680428
honey 111.0 12.6 ⚡ Corpus paper
wine 51.6 5.86 Corpus paper
ginger 7.9 0.90 —
blueberry 5.0 0.57 —
beer 2.5 0.28 —
milk 1.4 0.16 —
chocolate 1.3 0.15 —
fish 0.7 0.07 —
soybean sauce 0.2 0.02 —
lime 0.2 0.02 —
lemon 0.1 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 terpinen-4-ol. 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 terpinen-4-ol in it. Full concentrations are in the OAV table above.

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