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Grapefruit

Grapefruit is a citrus fruit with 338 known flavor compounds. The most distinctive molecule is trans-4,5-epoxy-(e)-dec-2-enal. It pairs most strongly with orange, sharing 282 flavor compounds. Grapefruit appears in 624 recipes, most commonly in ginger cuisine.

Nootkatone gives distinctive character. Thiol compound adds tropical note at very low threshold. Overwhelmingly citrus.

Scientific name: Citrus paradisi
nothospecies of plant
Grapefruit — ingredient reference image
338
Flavor Compounds
8
Top Pairings of 856 scored

Flavor Science

Flavor Profile Breakdown

338 compounds

How Grapefruit's 338 known compounds break down by aroma category. Percentages are of compounds with a known label.

fruity 52 · 15.4%
sour 44 · 13.0%
herbal 42 · 12.4%
floral 40 · 11.8%
other 38 · 11.2%
green 29 · 8.6%
roasted 16 · 4.7%
spicy 11 · 3.3%
sulfurous 9 · 2.7%
woody 8 · 2.4%

Most Used In

Flavor Compounds

92 of 338 are distinctive to grapefruit — they appear in under 10% of foods. The remainder are the background most foods share.

Ordered by measured impact in grapefruit — concentration against odour threshold where both are published, then by how distinctive the molecule is across the graph. Molecules measured here but not established as odorants sit below those that are.

Molecules volatile enough to reach the nose.

Best Pairings for Grapefruit

Ranked by how often cooks actually use them together, across 453,403 recipes — the familiar answer first. Each pairing still carries its molecular score and shared-compound count; only the ORDER differs. Counts cover every characterised molecule the two ingredients have in common, not only the aroma-active ones, so they can exceed an ingredient’s aroma-compound count. For the chemistry-first view — where the surprising pairings live — see the molecular network below, the side-by-side comparison, or the Pairing Tool.

Molecular Neighborhood

Grapefruit and its 10 closest compound-sharing relatives. Spoke thickness = shared compounds; circle size = that ingredient's own compound count. Drag to rearrange, scroll to zoom, click to open.

Molecular neighborhood diagram of grapefruit — top 10 ingredients ranked by shared volatile compounds

Recipes with Grapefruit

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Research basis

Grapefruit is supported by 1,533 peer-reviewed papers

Drawn from PubMed + Europe PMC + food-science journals. Click any title to read the full abstract on the original source.