Where is β-Pinene found?

In this library, β-Pinene contributes to the smell of pine wood.

What is the boiling point of β-Pinene?

About 166 °C — light and fast-evaporating, usually a top note.

What is the odour threshold of β-Pinene?

140 parts per billion in water — the lowest concentration at which the human nose still detects a smell.

Compounds · Monoterpenes · Terpenoid pathway

β-Pinene

Also known as Nopinene · Pseudopinene — an analysis may use any of these names

Pine, but darker and less sweet than alpha-pinene. The two differ only in the position of one double bond, and the human nose can tell them apart.

CAS: 127-91-3
Formula: C₁₀H₁₆
Molar mass: 136.23
Odour threshold: 140 ppbin water
Boiling point: ≈ 166 °C at atmospheric pressure

Volatility

150 °C290 °C

Threshold

most potentleast potent

The two axes are 59 points apart. Volatility tells you whether the compound leaves a surface early or late; the threshold tells you how much of it the nose needs before it notices. When the two sit this far apart, they explain things the percentages on an analysis cannot explain on their own.

Where it occurs

Each bar spans the lowest to the highest value measured across published lots. The dot is the mean. A wide range is not an error — it is the mark of a natural raw material.

0 7 13 20 %

Cold-pressed lemon peel 1 lot

12.1–12.1
mean 12.1

Must be declared on the label

This compound was added by Regulation (EU) 2023/1545 to the list of allergens that must be declared individually on cosmetic labels in the European Union. Name to use on the label: PINENE.

The declaration threshold is 0.001% in leave-on products and 0.01% in rinse-off products. This is an EU requirement — see the regulations page for why it matters beyond the EU. This is not legal advice.

Where it comes from

Biosynthetic pathway: Terpenoid pathway — plants build them from identical five-carbon blocks.

About the threshold figure

High, at the same level as α-pinene. Monoterpene hydrocarbons need large concentrations.

Published thresholds differ by several orders of magnitude, because of differences in measuring method, sample purity and panel. The figure here is an order of magnitude for relative comparison, not a measurement. We give it only for compounds where the literature broadly agrees — 52 of the 106 compounds in the library. The rest are left blank rather than guessed.

Why it sits where it does

The same molecular formula as alpha-pinene, differing only in the position of one double bond, so their boiling points are about ten degrees apart. Enough for the nose to tell them apart, and enough for a chromatography column to separate them into two peaks.

Where else you meet it

Pine resin, dill, parsley. It usually accompanies alpha-pinene, and the ratio between the two is a species fingerprint.

Dictionary entries that mention this compound

Pine wood

Reading the table above correctly

Percentage is not odour strength. The human nose’s detection thresholds differ by up to millions of times from one compound to another.

A wide range is normal. A supplier who publishes identical figures year after year is something to question, not something to trust.