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Compound sheet

Aroma molecule · thiol

3-methylthio-1-propanol

Smells ofpotato, cabbage

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
106.19 g/mol
CAS
505-10-2
PubChem
—
Threshold · a food
36.0 ppb
Class
thiol
Status
Key food odorant

01How little it takes

  • in water 123
  • in a food 500
  • in alcoholpapers disagree 1,000
  • in wine/beerpapers disagree 1,000

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

02Where it turns up

  • Vegetables1
  • Meat & fish1
  • Drinks1
  • Other1

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 3-methylthio-1-propanol smell like?

The key-food-odorant survey describes it as potato, cabbage.

It is a key food odorant (individualist): identified in the meta-analysis of 227 food samples as one of 151 individualist odorants, which appear in under 5% of foods and carry the signature of specific ingredients. Source: Dunkel et al. 2014, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 53, 7124–7143

Which foods contain 3-methylthio-1-propanol?

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 3-methylthio-1-propanol in it. ✓n = sources that recorded the link.

How strong is 3-methylthio-1-propanol?

In a food matrix: 36.0 ppb, from 1 published value.

Published thresholds

3 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.

In a food matrix · 36.0 ppb ppbMeasured in a real food, where the matrix shifts detection — not a clean-water value.
ThresholdMatrixSourcePaper
36.0 ppb water (food: reference standard (water)) Literature corpus 26213023, 32657431, 35396186 +1
Retronasal / in-mouth · 5.0 ppb ppbTasted rather than smelled — a different sense, not comparable.
ThresholdMatrixSourcePaper
5.0 ppb SIDA water_retronasal Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies —
Other matrix · 180 ppb ppbMeasured in a non-aqueous medium (oil, starch, cellulose).
ThresholdMatrixSourcePaper
180 ppb wine matrix (12% ethanol) (food: red wine) Literature corpus 26213023, 32657431, 35396186 +1

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 36 µg/L air 0.2–500 55 no (3.4 decades)
ethanol solution 1000 ppb 0.0015–2.11e+03 88 no (6.1 decades)
food matrix 500 ppb 11.8–2.11e+06 2725 yes
model wine or beer 1000 ppb 1e+03–1e+03 11 one paper
unstated 856.1 ppb 0.02–6.68e+05 4541 no (2.4 decades)
water 123.1 ppb 36–500 1211 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.

Is 3-methylthio-1-propanol 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.

3-methylthio-1-propanol questions

What does 3-methylthio-1-propanol smell like?

Sources describe 3-methylthio-1-propanol as potato and cabbage. It is one of the key food odorants identified by Dunkel et al. (2014).

Which foods contain 3-methylthio-1-propanol?

We list 4 ingredients that contain 3-methylthio-1-propanol.

How strong is 3-methylthio-1-propanol?

The median of 1 published odour thresholds in a food is 36.0 ppb.

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). 3-methylthio-1-propanol compound data sheet. https://compkitchen.com/compound/3-methylthio-1-propanol. Accessed 2026-11-03.
BibTeX
@misc{compkitchen_compound_3_methylthio_1_propanol_compound_data_sheet_2026,
  title  = {3-methylthio-1-propanol compound data sheet},
  author = {{Compound Kitchen}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://compkitchen.com/compound/3-methylthio-1-propanol},
  note   = {Accessed: 2026-11-03}
}

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