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Compound sheet

Aroma molecule · phenol

4-methylguaiacol

Smells ofsmoky, spicy, vanilla, clove, phenolic

Found in 5 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
138.16 g/mol
CAS
93-51-6
PubChem
—
Threshold · water
90.0 ppb
Class
phenol
Status
Key food odorant

01How little it takes

  • in water 23
  • in a foodpapers disagree 65
  • in alcohol 315
  • in wine/beerpapers disagree 65

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

02Where it turns up

  • Drinks3
  • Dairy1
  • Other1

of the 5 ingredients that contain it, by food group

03What it travels with

4-methylpentanoic acid 5 guaiacol 5 heptanoic acid 5 isoamyl acetate 5 isovaleric acid 5 4-methylgu…

line weight = ingredients carrying both, of 5 · only molecules found with it at least 1.5× as often as across all foods

What does 4-methylguaiacol smell like?

Sources describe it as smoky, spicy, vanilla, clove, phenolic.

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

How this molecule is described

  • burnt, chemical, fruity, smoky, cinnamon FlavorDB 2.0
  • smoke FlavorDB 2.0
  • smoky FlavorDB 2.0
  • smoky, spicy, vanilla, clove, phenolic shown above Llm Adjudicated
  • chemical Flavordb Odor Column
  • burnt Flavordb Odor Column

Ordered by how many independent descriptor streams give each wording, then by how often it appears. The bar is replication (one source copied onto many ingredients scores high), not corroboration.

Which foods contain 4-methylguaiacol?

We list 5 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 4-methylguaiacol in it. ✓n = sources that recorded the link.

How strong is 4-methylguaiacol?

Orthonasal, in clean water: 90.0 ppb, from 1 published value.

Published thresholds

2 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 · 90.0 ppb ppbThe reference measurement — smelled in water. OAV is computed against this.
ThresholdMatrixSourcePaper
90.0 ppb water_odor Leffingwell —
Retronasal / in-mouth · 65.0 ppb ppbTasted rather than smelled — a different sense, not comparable.
ThresholdMatrixSourcePaper
65.0 ppb water_flavor Leffingwell —

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 90 µg/L air 90–90 11 one paper
ethanol solution 315 ppb 315–315 33 yes
food matrix 65 ppb 10–9.5e+03 97 no (2.8 decades)
model wine or beer 65 ppb 65–65 11 one paper
unstated 315 ppb 20–315 1512 yes
water 23 ppb 8.92–30 44 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
1526

What is it found with?

Of the 5 ingredients that carry 4-methylguaiacol, 5 also carry 4-methylpentanoic acid, 5 guaiacol and 5 heptanoic acid. These are the most frequent companions among molecules that turn up with 4-methylguaiacol at least 1.5 times as often as they do across all foods; the very common molecules found nearly everywhere are left out because they say nothing about it.

Is 4-methylguaiacol 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.

4-methylguaiacol questions

What does 4-methylguaiacol smell like?

Sources describe 4-methylguaiacol as smoky, spicy, vanilla, clove and phenolic. It is one of the key food odorants identified by Dunkel et al. (2014).

Which foods contain 4-methylguaiacol?

We list 5 ingredients that contain 4-methylguaiacol.

How strong is 4-methylguaiacol?

The median of 1 published odour thresholds in water is 90.0 ppb.

What molecules are found with 4-methylguaiacol?

The molecules most often found in the same ingredients are 4-methylpentanoic acid, guaiacol, heptanoic acid and isoamyl acetate.

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). 4-methylguaiacol compound data sheet. https://compkitchen.com/compound/4-methylguaiacol. Accessed 2026-11-03.
BibTeX
@misc{compkitchen_compound_4_methylguaiacol_compound_data_sheet_2026,
  title  = {4-methylguaiacol compound data sheet},
  author = {{Compound Kitchen}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://compkitchen.com/compound/4-methylguaiacol},
  note   = {Accessed: 2026-11-03}
}

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