MOLECULE

propanoic acid

Named in 1 VERIFIED claim about 1 Atlas entry: Plastic.

Where the evidence names it

Plastic

Reported volatile · the claim says “emitted material-specific volatile compounds”

Pieces of plastic food-packaging film emitted material-specific volatile compounds: mostly branched alkanes and alkenes from polypropylene/polyamide, octane and aldehydes from polypropylene, and aldehydes and propanoic acid from polylactic acid.

Scope: Three packaging films screened by GC–MS, not by odour analysis; it does not cover plastics in general. CLM-PLASTIC-001 ↗

Identifiers

PubChem: CID 1032 (Propionic Acid)
Formula: C3H6O2
InChIKey: XBDQKXXYIPTUBI-UHFFFAOYSA-N
Wikidata: Q422956
ChEBI: CHEBI:30768

Checked against PubChem and Wikidata on 2026-10-02 (identifier check run 37063263965). Every name SmellBook uses must resolve to the same single PubChem compound.

WHAT THIS MEANS

SmellBook lists a molecule only where a VERIFIED claim names it, in the role and scope that claim states. A molecule reported in a smell's evidence is not the whole smell: most smells come from many compounds together, and the studies measured particular samples, such as one cultivar, an essential oil or a cooked product.

Permanent identifier smellbook:molecule:propanoic-acid · Graph record (JSON)

Cite as SmellBook. (2026). propanoic acid (molecule). SmellBook knowledge graph, Strategy Phase 369. smellbook:molecule:propanoic-acid. https://smellbook.com/molecules/propanoic-acid

Dataset history In the SmellBook dataset since Strategy Phase 369.