isopentanol

floral alcohol Key food odorant

Found in 6 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: malty.

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

Properties

Odor description: aroma-active
Odor threshold — orthonasal, in clean water: 275 ppb – 56100 ppb median 1000 ppb · 3 published values · see all 15 with sources
CAS number: 123-51-3
Retention index: 1214

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

15 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

275 ppb – 56100 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
275 ppb	water_odor	Leffingwell	—
1000 ppb SIDA	water	Rychlik 1998 · 3 studies	—
56100 ppb SIDA	water/ethanol 6:4 (food: american bourbon whisky)	Literature corpus	18570373, 19053838, 28911457 +5

In a food matrix

220 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
220 ppb SIDA	water (food: reference standard (water))	Literature corpus	18570373, 19053838, 28911457 +5

Retronasal / in-mouth

170 ppb – 250 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
170 ppb	water_flavor	Leffingwell	—
225 ppb SIDA	oil_retronasal	Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies	—
250 ppb SIDA	water_retronasal	Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies	—
70000 ppb SIDA	beer_retronasal	Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies	—
Flagged: 295× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden.

In air

1.7 ppb – 120 ppb

Airborne detection — not comparable to a water threshold.

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
1.7 ppb	air	Nagata 2003	—
120 ppb	air (HS_hellman_small)	Cometto-Muñiz (PMC)	—

Other matrix

225 ppb – 56100 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
225 ppb SIDA	oil (sunflower oil) (food: gouda cheese)	Literature corpus	18570373, 19053838, 28911457 +5
2000 ppb SIDA	wine (food: red wine (cabernet sauvignon))	Literature corpus	18570373, 19053838, 28911457 +5
5100 ppb SIDA	wine matrix (12% ethanol) (food: rum / red wine)	Literature corpus	18570373, 19053838, 28911457 +5
56000 ppb SIDA	ethanol/water (food: rum / red wine)	Literature corpus	18570373, 19053838, 28911457 +5
56100 ppb SIDA	ethanol/water 40/60 (food: rum (aged))	Literature corpus	18570373, 19053838, 28911457 +5

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	220 µg/L air	0.0061–1.79e+05	19	15	no (5.8 decades)
ethanol solution	5.61e+04 ppb	176–5.61e+05	23	19	yes
food matrix	4750 ppb	0.29–3e+07	85	75	no (4.0 decades)
model wine or beer	3e+04 ppb	3e+04–6e+04	4	4	yes
not applicable	1.5e+04 ppb	4–3e+04	2	2	no (3.9 decades)
oil	112 ppb	100–225	5	4	yes
starch or other	102 ppb	102–102	1	1	one paper
unstated	3e+04 ppb	0.0061–3e+08	193	173	no (4.7 decades)
water	220 ppb	0.25–1.79e+05	48	44	no (2.4 decades)

Found in

Measured impact first, then profile share

Every ingredient known to contain isopentanol. 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 isopentanol in it.

198 cmpds

205 cmpds

226 cmpds

246 cmpds