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Compound sheet

Aroma molecule · pyrazine

2-methoxy-3-(2-methylpropyl)-pyrazine

Smells ofearth, spice, green pepper, pepper, green

Found in 4 ingredients. We hold no measured concentration for it in any of them yet, so we cannot say where it is strong enough to smell.

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Formula
—
Mass
166.22 g/mol
CAS
24683-00-9
PubChem
—
Threshold · water
0.007 ppb
Class
pyrazine
Status
Key food odorant

01How little it takes

  • in water 0.007
  • in a foodpapers disagree 0.38
  • in alcoholpapers disagree 0.002
  • in wine/beerpapers disagree 0.002
  • in oilpapers disagree 5,000

ppb, log scale · tick = median of published values, bar = full range, from open-access paper tables (not reviewed)

02Where it turns up

  • Drinks2
  • Fruit1
  • Vegetables1

of the 4 ingredients that contain it, by food group

03What it travels with

Too few ingredients to say what it travels with.

What does 2-methoxy-3-(2-methylpropyl)-pyrazine smell like?

Sources describe it as earth, spice, green pepper, pepper, green, bell, pea, galbanum, greenpepper.

It is a key food odorant (intermediary): identified in the meta-analysis of 227 food samples as one of 57 intermediary odorants, which appear in 5–25% of foods. Source: Dunkel et al. 2014, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 53, 7124–7143

How this molecule is described

Also filed as: 2-methoxy-3-(2-methylpropyl) pyrazine · 2-methoxy-3-(2-methylpropyl)pyrazine — same molecule, unified here.

Which foods contain 2-methoxy-3-(2-methylpropyl)-pyrazine?

We list 4 ingredients that contain it, but presence is not the same as smell. What matters is how much is there compared with how little it takes to notice it. That ratio is the odour activity value (OAV): above 1, you can smell it.

Found in

Measured foods first, then real food profiles, then thin or composite records (marked). The figure beside each is how many compounds that ingredient has in total, not the amount of 2-methoxy-3-(2-methylpropyl)-pyrazine in it. ✓n = sources that recorded the link.

How strong is 2-methoxy-3-(2-methylpropyl)-pyrazine?

Orthonasal, in clean water: 0.005 ppb to 0.009 ppb, median 0.007 ppb, from 2 published values. Thresholds printed in paper tables for oil are about 714,314× the ones for water.

Published thresholds

10 measured values from the literature, grouped by what was measured: a threshold smelled in clean water, tasted, or measured in a real food are different quantities and are not pooled.

Orthonasal, in clean water · 0.005 ppb–0.009 ppb ppbThe reference measurement — smelled in water. OAV is computed against this.
ThresholdMatrixSourcePaper
0.005 ppb SIDA water Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies —
0.009 ppb water_odor Leffingwell —
In a food matrix · 0.002 ppb–0.006 ppb ppbMeasured in a real food, where the matrix shifts detection — not a clean-water value.
ThresholdMatrixSourcePaper
0.002 ppb water (food: smoked cooked loin (pork)) Literature corpus —
0.006 ppb water (food: green tea infusion (jingshan cha)) Literature corpus —
0.006 ppb water (food: reference standard (water)) Literature corpus —
Retronasal / in-mouth · 0.600 ppb ppbTasted rather than smelled — a different sense, not comparable.
ThresholdMatrixSourcePaper
0.600 ppb SIDA oil_retronasal Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies —
Other matrix · 0.800 ppb ppbMeasured in a non-aqueous medium (oil, starch, cellulose).
ThresholdMatrixSourcePaper
0.800 ppb SIDA oil_orthonasal Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies —
0.800 ppb SIDA cellulose Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies —
0.800 ppb oil (sunflower oil) (food: cocoa beans) Literature corpus —
0.800 ppb oil (sunflower oil) (food: cocoa powder) Literature corpus —

Only values we can attribute are listed. Where a compendium’s licence does not permit public attribution its figures are omitted, so every number here traces to a citable source.

Thresholds in published tables

MediumMedianRangeValuesPapersPapers agree?
air 0.00367 µg/L air 0.001–0.045 31 one paper
ethanol solution 0.002 ppb 0.002–0.002 11 one paper
food matrix 0.38 ppb 3.8e-05–15 65 no (4.3 decades)
model wine or beer 0.002 ppb 0.002–0.002 11 one paper
oil 5000 ppb 0.4–1e+04 22 no (4.4 decades)
unstated 0.002 ppb 0.001–5.75 1310 yes
water 0.007 ppb 0.002–0.038 119 yes

Numbers printed in open-access papers, grouped by the medium the table states. Median and full range; “agree” means two or more papers whose middle 80% of values sit within 100×. Not reviewed.

Retention index
1517

Is 2-methoxy-3-(2-methylpropyl)-pyrazine safe to eat?

Not in FEMA GRAS publications 1–33. Of 3,367 listed flavoring substances, none match this compound or its other names. It may still be food-safe under other regulatory routes (FDA 21 CFR 172, EFSA, JECFA); check femaflavor.org for the authoritative current list.

2-methoxy-3-(2-methylpropyl)-pyrazine questions

What does 2-methoxy-3-(2-methylpropyl)-pyrazine smell like?

Sources describe 2-methoxy-3-(2-methylpropyl)-pyrazine as earth, spice, green pepper, pepper and green. It is one of the key food odorants identified by Dunkel et al. (2014).

Which foods contain 2-methoxy-3-(2-methylpropyl)-pyrazine?

We list 4 ingredients that contain 2-methoxy-3-(2-methylpropyl)-pyrazine.

How strong is 2-methoxy-3-(2-methylpropyl)-pyrazine?

The median of 2 published odour thresholds in water is 0.007 ppb (range 0.005 to 0.009 ppb). Published values in oil are about 714,314 times higher than in water.

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

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Cite this analysis
Plain text
Compound Kitchen (2026). 2-methoxy-3-(2-methylpropyl)-pyrazine compound data sheet. https://compkitchen.com/compound/2-methoxy-3-%282-methylpropyl%29-pyrazine. Accessed 2026-11-03.
BibTeX
@misc{compkitchen_compound_2_methoxy_3_2_methylpropyl_pyrazine_compound_data_sheet_2026,
  title  = {2-methoxy-3-(2-methylpropyl)-pyrazine compound data sheet},
  author = {{Compound Kitchen}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://compkitchen.com/compound/2-methoxy-3-%282-methylpropyl%29-pyrazine},
  note   = {Accessed: 2026-11-03}
}

Methodology DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19719459 · CC BY 4.0 · Citations are a request, not a requirement.