4-ethenyl-2-methoxyphenol

spicy phenol Key food odorant

Found 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. 2014

Identified in the meta-analysis of 227 food samples as one of 57 intermediary odorants — appears in 5–25% of foods. Characteristic odor: smoky, clove-like.

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

Properties

Odor description: clove-like, smoky
Odor threshold — orthonasal, in clean water: 3.0 ppb – 60.0 ppb median 5.0 ppb · 3 published values · see all 12 with sources
CAS number: 7786-61-0

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

12 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

3.0 ppb – 60.0 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
3.0 ppb	water_odor	Leffingwell	—
5.0 ppb SIDA	water	Dunkel 2014	—
60.0 ppb SIDA	water	Rychlik 1998 · 2 studies	—

In a food matrix

5.0 ppb – 30.0 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
5.0 ppb	water (food: smoked cooked loin (pork))	Literature corpus	—
5.1 ppb	water (food: reference standard (water))	Literature corpus	—
19.0 ppb	water (food: beef vegetable gravy)	Literature corpus	—
19.0 ppb	water (food: pork vegetable gravy)	Literature corpus	—
30.0 ppb	water (food: orange juice (reconstituted from concentrate))	Literature corpus	—

Retronasal / in-mouth

4.0 ppb

Tasted rather than smelled — a different sense, not comparable.

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
4.0 ppb SIDA	water_retronasal	Rychlik 1998 · 2 studies	—

Other matrix

18.3 ppb – 1042 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
18.3 ppb SIDA	starch	Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies	—
50.0 ppb SIDA	oil_orthonasal	Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies	—
1042 ppb SIDA	cellulose	Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies	—

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	100 µg/L air	0.0017–200	5	5	no (5.1 decades)
ethanol solution	124.7 ppb	0.4–1.1e+03	8	8	no (3.1 decades)
food matrix	45 ppb	0.003–4e+04	18	16	no (5.6 decades)
model wine or beer	40 ppb	40–1.1e+03	3	3	yes
not applicable	12.02 ppb	12–12	1	1	one paper
oil	50 ppb	5–200	8	6	yes
starch or other	18.15 ppb	18–18.3	2	2	yes
unstated	40 ppb	3–1.1e+03	51	43	yes
water	5.1 ppb	0.01–1e+04	25	25	yes

Found in

Measured impact first, then profile share

Every ingredient known to contain 4-ethenyl-2-methoxyphenol. 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 4-ethenyl-2-methoxyphenol in it.

285 cmpds

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