Molecule · thiol
4-sulfanyl-4-methylpentan-2-one
Found in 1 ingredient. 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
- 132.23 g/mol
- CAS
- 19872-52-7
- PubChem
- —
- FEMA
- not listed
- Threshold · a food
- 0.002 ppb
- Class
- thiol
- Status
- Key food odorant
01How little it takes
- in waterpapers disagree 0.0042
ppb, log scale · tick = median of published values, bar = full range, from open-access paper tables (not reviewed)
02Where it turns up
- Drinks1
of the 1 ingredient that contain it, by food group
03What it travels with
Too few ingredients to say what it travels with.
What does 4-sulfanyl-4-methylpentan-2-one smell like?
We hold no odour description for 4-sulfanyl-4-methylpentan-2-one.
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 4-sulfanyl-4-methylpentan-2-one?
We list 1 ingredient 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-sulfanyl-4-methylpentan-2-one in it. ✓n = sources that recorded the link.
How strong is 4-sulfanyl-4-methylpentan-2-one?
In a food matrix: 0.0001 ppb to 0.002 ppb, median 0.002 ppb, from 3 published values.
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.
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.0001 ppb | water (food: hand-squeezed grapefruit juice) | Literature corpus | — |
| 0.002 ppb | water (food: green tea infusion (jingshan cha)) | Literature corpus | — |
| 0.002 ppb | water (food: longjing green tea infusion) | Literature corpus | — |
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
| Medium | Median | Range | Values | Papers | Papers agree? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| unstated | 0.0008 ppb | 0.0008–0.005 | 4 | 2 | yes |
| water | 0.0042 ppb | 0.0042–0.0042 | 1 | 1 | one paper |
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 4-sulfanyl-4-methylpentan-2-one 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-sulfanyl-4-methylpentan-2-one questions
Which foods contain 4-sulfanyl-4-methylpentan-2-one?
We list 1 ingredient that contain 4-sulfanyl-4-methylpentan-2-one.
How strong is 4-sulfanyl-4-methylpentan-2-one?
The median of 3 published odour thresholds in a food is 0.002 ppb (range 0.0001 to 0.002 ppb).
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Cite this analysis
Compound Kitchen (2026). 4-sulfanyl-4-methylpentan-2-one compound data sheet. https://compkitchen.com/compound/4-sulfanyl-4-methylpentan-2-one. Accessed 2026-11-03.
@misc{compkitchen_compound_4_sulfanyl_4_methylpentan_2_one_compound_data_sheet_2026,
title = {4-sulfanyl-4-methylpentan-2-one compound data sheet},
author = {{Compound Kitchen}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://compkitchen.com/compound/4-sulfanyl-4-methylpentan-2-one},
note = {Accessed: 2026-11-03}
}
Methodology DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19719459 · CC BY 4.0 · Citations are a request, not a requirement.