2-phenylethan-1-ol
floral alcohol Key food odorantFound in 2 ingredients across the CompKitchen flavor graph.
Look up another compound — search by name, CAS number, PubChem CID, or FEMA #.
Key food odorant (intermediary)
Dunkel et al. 2014Identified in the meta-analysis of 227 food samples as one of 57 intermediary odorants — appears in 5–25% of foods. Characteristic odor: flowery, wine-like.
Properties
- Odor description
- floral, astringent
- Odor threshold — orthonasal, in clean water
- 590 ppb – 2600 ppb median 962 ppb · 4 published values · see all 19 with sources
- CAS number
- 60-12-8
- Retention index
- 1908
Published thresholds
19 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
590 ppb – 2600 ppbThe reference measurement — smelled in water. OAV is computed against this.
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 590 ppb SIDA | water | Dunkel 2014 | — |
| 925 ppb | water_odor | Leffingwell | — |
| 1000 ppb SIDA | water | Rychlik 1998 · 2 studies | — |
| 2600 ppb SIDA | water/ethanol 6:4 (food: american bourbon whisky) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 19326859, 26973023 +9 |
In a food matrix
5.0 ppb – 390 ppbMeasured in a real food, where the matrix shifts detection — not a clean-water value.
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.390 ppb SIDA | water (food: smoked cooked loin (pork)) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 19326859, 26973023 +9 |
| Flagged: 186× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden. | |||
| 5.0 ppb SIDA | water (food: longjing green tea infusion) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 19326859, 26973023 +9 |
| 140 ppb SIDA | water (food: reference standard (water)) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 19326859, 26973023 +9 |
| 390 ppb SIDA | water (food: japanese soy sauce) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 19326859, 26973023 +9 |
Retronasal / in-mouth
45.0 ppb – 122 ppbTasted rather than smelled — a different sense, not comparable.
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 45.0 ppb SIDA | water_retronasal | Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies | — |
| 122 ppb SIDA | oil_retronasal | Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies | — |
Other matrix
125 ppb – 3600 ppbMeasured in a non-aqueous medium (oil, starch, cellulose).
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 125 ppb SIDA | cellulose | Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies | — |
| 211 ppb SIDA | oil_orthonasal | Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies | — |
| 211 ppb SIDA | oil (sunflower oil) (food: gouda cheese) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 19326859, 26973023 +9 |
| 211 ppb SIDA | oil (sunflower oil) (food: cocoa beans) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 19326859, 26973023 +9 |
| 211 ppb SIDA | oil (sunflower oil) (food: cocoa powder) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 19326859, 26973023 +9 |
| 1000 ppb SIDA | wine (food: red wine (cabernet sauvignon)) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 19326859, 26973023 +9 |
| 2600 ppb SIDA | ethanol/water (food: rum / red wine) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 19326859, 26973023 +9 |
| 2600 ppb SIDA | ethanol/water 40/60 (food: rum (aged)) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 19326859, 26973023 +9 |
| 3600 ppb SIDA | wine matrix (12% ethanol) (food: rum / red wine) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 19326859, 26973023 +9 |
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 | 564.2 µg/L air | 0.0012–3.1e+04 | 22 | 20 | no (6.1 decades) |
| ethanol solution | 1e+04 ppb | 0.002–4e+04 | 24 | 22 | no (2.3 decades) |
| food matrix | 1e+04 ppb | 0.0005–2.89e+07 | 104 | 93 | no (3.2 decades) |
| model wine or beer | 1.4e+04 ppb | 14–2e+05 | 5 | 5 | no (4.2 decades) |
| not applicable | 900 ppb | 60–1.4e+04 | 3 | 3 | no (2.4 decades) |
| oil | 211 ppb | 211–2e+03 | 3 | 2 | yes |
| starch or other | 125 ppb | 125–125 | 1 | 1 | one paper |
| unstated | 1200 ppb | 0.015–1.4e+06 | 215 | 191 | no (2.9 decades) |
| water | 345 ppb | 0.015–9.59e+04 | 88 | 85 | no (2.5 decades) |
Found in
Measured impact first, then profile shareEvery ingredient known to contain 2-phenylethan-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-phenylethan-1-ol in it.
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