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Compound sheet

Molecule · lactone

5-hexyldihydrofuran-2(3h)-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
170.25 g/mol
CAS
706-14-9
PubChem
—
Threshold · water
16.0 ppb
Class
lactone
Status
Key food odorant

01How little it takes

  • in water 6.15
  • in a food 1.1

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

02Where it turns up

  • Fruit1

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 5-hexyldihydrofuran-2(3h)-one smell like?

We hold no odour description for 5-hexyldihydrofuran-2(3h)-one.

It is a key food odorant (intermediary): identified in the meta-analysis of 227 food samples as one of 57 intermediary odorants, which appear in 5–25% of foods. Source: Dunkel et al. 2014, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 53, 7124–7143

Which foods contain 5-hexyldihydrofuran-2(3h)-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 5-hexyldihydrofuran-2(3h)-one in it. ✓n = sources that recorded the link.

How strong is 5-hexyldihydrofuran-2(3h)-one?

Orthonasal, in clean water: 11.0 ppb to 21.0 ppb, median 16.0 ppb, from 2 published values.

Published thresholds

4 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 · 11.0 ppb–21.0 ppb ppbThe reference measurement — smelled in water. OAV is computed against this.
ThresholdMatrixSourcePaper
11.0 ppb water_odor Leffingwell —
21.0 ppb water/ethanol 6:4 (food: american bourbon whisky) Literature corpus —
In a food matrix · 1.1 ppb ppbMeasured in a real food, where the matrix shifts detection — not a clean-water value.
ThresholdMatrixSourcePaper
1.1 ppb water (food: reference standard (water)) Literature corpus —
Retronasal / in-mouth · 88.0 ppb ppbTasted rather than smelled — a different sense, not comparable.
ThresholdMatrixSourcePaper
88.0 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 1.1 µg/L air 1.1–1.1 11 one paper
food matrix 1.1 ppb 1.1–1.1 22 yes
unstated 1.1 ppb 1.1–11 44 yes
water 6.15 ppb 2.6–9.7 22 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 5-hexyldihydrofuran-2(3h)-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.

5-hexyldihydrofuran-2(3h)-one questions

Which foods contain 5-hexyldihydrofuran-2(3h)-one?

We list 1 ingredient that contain 5-hexyldihydrofuran-2(3h)-one.

How strong is 5-hexyldihydrofuran-2(3h)-one?

The median of 2 published odour thresholds in water is 16.0 ppb (range 11.0 to 21.0 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). 5-hexyldihydrofuran-2(3h)-one compound data sheet. https://compkitchen.com/compound/5-hexyldihydrofuran-2%283h%29-one. Accessed 2026-11-07.
BibTeX
@misc{compkitchen_compound_5_hexyldihydrofuran_2_3h_one_compound_data_sheet_2026,
  title  = {5-hexyldihydrofuran-2(3h)-one compound data sheet},
  author = {{Compound Kitchen}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://compkitchen.com/compound/5-hexyldihydrofuran-2%283h%29-one},
  note   = {Accessed: 2026-11-07}
}

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