MOLECULE
Named in 2 VERIFIED claims about 2 Atlas entries: Butter, Cheese.
Key odorant · the claim says “the key odorants of sour cream butter”
A review of aroma studies reports that sweet cream butter is characterised by lactones and sulfur compounds, while the key odorants of sour cream butter are diacetyl, butanoic acid and δ-decalactone, formed mainly by lactic acid bacteria.
Scope: Key odorants differ between sweet cream, sour cream and heated butter and butter oil. CLM-BUTTER-001 ↗
Linked to the odour · the claim says “potent odorants”
Aroma extract dilution analysis identified 39 potent odorants in Cheddar cheese; compounds such as acetic and butanoic acids, dimethyl trisulfide, methional and 1-octen-3-one differed most between cheeses ripened for different times.
Scope: Cheddar ripened for 6 to 14 months; cheese aroma varies widely between cheese types. CLM-CHEDDAR-001 ↗
FERIUCNNQQJTOY-UHFFFAOYSA-NChecked against PubChem and Wikidata on 2026-10-02 (identifier check run 37063263965). Every name SmellBook uses must resolve to the same single PubChem compound.
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:butanoic-acid · Graph record (JSON)
Cite as SmellBook. (2026). butanoic acid (molecule). SmellBook knowledge graph, Strategy Phase 369. smellbook:molecule:butanoic-acid. https://smellbook.com/molecules/butanoic-acid
Dataset history In the SmellBook dataset since Strategy Phase 369.