Methyl Anthranilate (Mm, grapey aniline)

Methyl anthanilate occurs naturally in grapes, along with a suite of other aroma compounds, which combine to give that complex, earthy, bright grape juice aroma.

i-4fe2b552737e6d0b8b5e7a9d2d7c9318-methylAnthranilate.png

If you use it in a prepared food at high concentration, as the lone or primary flavorant, however, you end up with the cloying, floral aroma of grape soda.

Tags

More like this

Synesthesia -- the ability to experience a sensation like vision in another mode, like hearing -- is thought to be quite rare. Yet all of us have the ability to combine sensory modes, and we do it every day. The modes we combine just happen to be ones we don't think about as often: taste and smell…
Le Beaujolais nouveau est arrivé! Yes, the 15th of November has arrived as have thousands of cases of a fresh, fruity wine, the Beaujolais Nouveaux. Grapes that were on the vine just a few short months ago have been heroically converted into a wine that has traditionally been rushed to Paris, and…
I've already talked about lead acetate and the fact that it was almost certainly the first artificial sweetener before, and I've been reading about it again lately. Here's something I didn't know - it may have helped cause the fall of Rome. Here's how it worked. Roman households loved a condiment…
This week's Seder supper with the Zivkovic family and local friends gave me the opportunity to investigate several Kosher wines from Israel. My local wine merchant, Wine Authorities, has been carrying several Israeli wines for over a year but I've only tasted one and have unfortunately lost my…

I was just thinking about this molecule earlier today. strange....

Urgh, Grape Soda. I love grapes, really I do, but anything "grape-flavored" gets the veto from me.

It also works as a bird repellent. And it's what they use to make perfectly good apples into repulsive Grapples.

By evilfruitlord (not verified) on 15 Dec 2008 #permalink

I've always thought that purple irises, but not other colors, smell strongly of grape soda. My assumption has always been that I associate the grape-soda color with the fragrance, but could it be that some purple irises produce this compound?

By Julie Stahlhut (not verified) on 16 Dec 2008 #permalink

it has a melting point of 24C according to wiki...presumably it has some solubility in water, probably much better in aqueous phosphoric acid. suck an old compound, i wonder if the food flavouring companies have found newer compounds...is this the only thing out there that smells grape?....thanks

By lithiumdiisopr… (not verified) on 03 Jan 2009 #permalink

Methyl anthranilate also occurs in orange blossom and is a molecule that is used in floral compositions in perfumery (it is also a tricky ingredient as it can sometime affect the stability of a product). Americans have a tendency to notice the "grape" element in methyl anthranilate first, which probably goes back to childhood memories of grape juice. The French smell orange blossom when they smell the molecule because of the way orange blossom is used in fine fragrance, baby products and in cooking (orange blossom water).

I need to make some of this stuff, as a lab poutpurri. Though I doubt it'd be strong enough to mask the other smells being generated around me. One guy in my lab has been working with valeric acid, while the lab across the hall has been working with some kind of thiol, the two smells mingling in the hall between them to give it a nice simulation of what it would be like if a skunk crawled up Satan's ***hole and died.

would you happen to know why my 8 week old, male, white, chihuahua's face smells like grape soda? please write me back and let me know. thank you lori hensley

By Lori Hensley (not verified) on 15 Dec 2009 #permalink