2-methylpropan-1-ol

floral alcohol Key food odorant

Found in 3 ingredients across the CompKitchen flavor graph.

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

Key food odorant (individualist)

Dunkel et al. 2014

Identified in the meta-analysis of 227 food samples as one of 151 individualist odorants — appears in <5% of foods, carries the diagnostic signature of specific ingredients. Characteristic odor: malty.

Source: Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2014, 53, 7124–7143

Properties

Odor threshold — orthonasal, in clean water: 1000 ppb – 19000 ppb median 7000 ppb · 3 published values · see all 10 with sources
CAS number: 78-83-1
Retention index: 1103

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

10 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

1000 ppb – 19000 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
1000 ppb SIDA	water	Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies	—
7000 ppb	water_odor	Leffingwell	—
19000 ppb SIDA	water	Dunkel 2014	—

In a food matrix

550 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
550 ppb	water (food: reference standard (water))	Literature corpus	38846797, 40467248

In air

11.0 ppb – 676 ppb

Airborne detection — not comparable to a water threshold.

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
11.0 ppb	air	Nagata 2003	—
676 ppb	air (HS_hellman_small)	Cometto-Muñiz (PMC)	—

Other matrix

180 ppb – 10069 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
180 ppb	wine matrix (12% ethanol) (food: rum / red wine)	Literature corpus	38846797, 40467248
500 ppb	wine (food: red wine (cabernet sauvignon))	Literature corpus	38846797, 40467248
10000 ppb	ethanol/water (food: rum / red wine)	Literature corpus	38846797, 40467248
10069 ppb	ethanol/water 40/60 (food: rum (aged))	Literature corpus	38846797, 40467248

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.

Thresholds in published tables

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

Medium	Median	Range	Values	Papers	Papers agree?
air	4000 µg/L air	0.033–6.51e+06	13	9	no (6.8 decades)
ethanol solution	4e+04 ppb	50–1.01e+05	21	20	yes
food matrix	4e+04 ppb	0.033–1.6e+06	66	53	no (4.0 decades)
model wine or beer	4e+04 ppb	4e+04–7.5e+04	4	4	yes
not applicable	4e+04 ppb	4e+04–4e+04	1	1	one paper
oil	660 ppb	660–660	1	1	one paper
unstated	4e+04 ppb	0.5–2e+06	126	108	no (2.6 decades)
water	7000 ppb	4.68–4e+04	15	14	no (3.4 decades)

Found in

Measured impact first, then profile share

Every ingredient known to contain 2-methylpropan-1-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 2-methylpropan-1-ol in it.

21 cmpds

457 cmpds

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