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Compound sheet

Aroma molecule · terpenoid

7-methyl-3-methylideneocta-1,6-diene

Smells ofnutty, herbal, green

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
136.23 g/mol
CAS
123-35-3
PubChem
—
Threshold · water
14.0 ppb
Class
terpenoid
Status
Key food odorant

01How little it takes

  • in water 13
  • in a food 14.5
  • in alcohol 53
  • in wine/beerpapers disagree 14
  • in oil 635

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 7-methyl-3-methylideneocta-1,6-diene smell like?

Sources describe it as nutty, herbal, green. The key-food-odorant survey gives balsamic, peppery.

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 7-methyl-3-methylideneocta-1,6-diene?

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 7-methyl-3-methylideneocta-1,6-diene in it. ✓n = sources that recorded the link.

How strong is 7-methyl-3-methylideneocta-1,6-diene?

Orthonasal, in clean water: 14.0 ppb, from 2 published values. Thresholds printed in paper tables for oil are about 49× the ones for water.

Published thresholds

8 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 · 14.0 ppb ppbThe reference measurement — smelled in water. OAV is computed against this.
ThresholdMatrixSourcePaper
14.0 ppb water_odor Leffingwell —
14.0 ppb SIDA water Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies —
In a food matrix · 1.2 ppb–100 ppb ppbMeasured in a real food, where the matrix shifts detection — not a clean-water value.
ThresholdMatrixSource
1.2 ppb SIDA water (food: reference standard (water)) Literature corpus
14.0 ppb SIDA water (food: orange juice (reconstituted from concentrate)) Literature corpus
14.0 ppb SIDA water (food: hand-squeezed grapefruit juice) Literature corpus
100 ppb SIDA water (food: litsea pungens fruit) Literature corpus

Every value in this group cites the same papers: PMID 28490131, PMID 12710722, PMID 17487612 +105 more. Listed once rather than on every row.

Retronasal / in-mouth · 16.6 ppb ppbTasted rather than smelled — a different sense, not comparable.
ThresholdMatrixSourcePaper
16.6 ppb SIDA water_retronasal Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies —
In air · 13.0 ppb ppbAirborne detection — not comparable to a water threshold.
ThresholdMatrixSourcePaper
13.0 ppb SIDA air (food: reference standard (air)) Literature corpus 28490131, 12710722, 17487612 +105

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 14.5 µg/L air 0.061–915 1210 no (2.5 decades)
ethanol solution 52.95 ppb 4.9–101 22 yes
food matrix 14.5 ppb 0.042–3.5e+05 2422 yes
model wine or beer 14 ppb 14–14 11 one paper
oil 635 ppb 600–670 22 yes
unstated 15 ppb 0.0012–4e+07 7876 yes
water 13 ppb 1.2–234 4038 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 7-methyl-3-methylideneocta-1,6-diene 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.

7-methyl-3-methylideneocta-1,6-diene questions

What does 7-methyl-3-methylideneocta-1,6-diene smell like?

Sources describe 7-methyl-3-methylideneocta-1,6-diene as nutty, herbal and green. It is one of the key food odorants identified by Dunkel et al. (2014).

Which foods contain 7-methyl-3-methylideneocta-1,6-diene?

We list 1 ingredient that contain 7-methyl-3-methylideneocta-1,6-diene.

How strong is 7-methyl-3-methylideneocta-1,6-diene?

The median of 2 published odour thresholds in water is 14.0 ppb. Published values in oil are about 49 times higher than in water.

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). 7-methyl-3-methylideneocta-1,6-diene compound data sheet. https://compkitchen.com/compound/7-methyl-3-methylideneocta-1%2C6-diene. Accessed 2026-11-03.
BibTeX
@misc{compkitchen_compound_7_methyl_3_methylideneocta_1_6_diene_compound_data_sheet_2026,
  title  = {7-methyl-3-methylideneocta-1,6-diene compound data sheet},
  author = {{Compound Kitchen}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://compkitchen.com/compound/7-methyl-3-methylideneocta-1%2C6-diene},
  note   = {Accessed: 2026-11-03}
}

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