Material guide: methyl anthranilate — the grape soda note lives inside white flowers

The indole piece covered the component of white flowers with the worst reputation. The same flowers hold another oddity. Its reputation is fine; it is just hard to connect with a flower, because it smells like grape soda.

What matters

• The odour field puts fruity, grape, orangeflower and neroli in the same cell. Grape candy and orange blossom are not two materials here. They are one molecule.
• It sits at higher levels in flowers than indole does: champaca concrete 9.00%, orange flower water absolute 2.0–11.4%, Egyptian jasmine absolute 4.90%. Much of the neroli you have smelled was this.
• Why does American grape soda smell nothing like grapes on a European table? A 2020 study put the answer in one gene's promoter. A 2024 study found that grapes, sweet orange and maize each build the molecule by different routes, and that its day job in the plant is driving off animals that eat leaves.

Basic data

CAS	134-20-3
Formula	C₈H₉NO₂
Molecular weight	151.17
Odour	fruity, grape, orangeflower, neroli, musty, floral, powdery
Odour family	fruity
Strength	medium
Substantivity	88 hours (measured neat)
Appearance	pale yellow to dark yellow clear liquid to solid
Boiling point	238.00–241.00 °C @ 760 mmHg
Flash point	104.44 °C
Specific gravity	1.161–1.169 @ 25 °C
Refractive index	1.579–1.592 @ 20 °C
Water solubility	2850 mg/L @ 25 °C (measured)
Regulatory listings	GRAS, JECFA, CoE, FEMA GRAS (2682), IFRA

In plain terms, two rows are worth pausing on. Specific gravity 1.16 means it is heavier than water: drop it in and it sinks. That is uncommon among aroma materials, most of which float. The other is water solubility at 2850 mg/L, roughly 0.29%, far higher than most aroma molecules, which makes it easier to work with in formulas that contain water.

The 88 hours was measured neat. Same caution as in the indole piece: substantivity figures across this series come from different test conditions, so do not compare the numbers directly.

How much is in the flowers

Source	Content
Champaca concrete	9.00%
Michelia champaca flower absolute	5.15%
Champaca absolute	4.50%
Orange flower water absolute	2.0–11.4%
Orange flower absolute (Morocco)	1.0–4.3%
Jasmine sambac absolute (Egypt)	4.90%
Jasmine concrete (Italy)	2.86%
Jasmine concrete (India)	0.39–0.82%
Ylang ylang oil (Java)	1.55%
Narcissus absolute	0.19% / 0.43%
Sweet orange peel oil (Egypt)	0.24%
Ylang ylang oil	0.08%
Hyacinth absolute	0.02–0.03%

Orange flower water absolute runs from 2.0% to 11.4%, close to a sixfold spread. This is the same situation as indole at 2.6–9.9% in orange flower absolute: two samples both labelled "orange flower" can be very different inside.

It is not only in flowers. The same field also lists cocoa, coffee, grapefruit, lemon, lime, mandarin, pomelo, wild strawberry, white wine and red wine. And one entry that says it plainly: concord grape.

Why American grape soda tastes like that

European table grapes (Vitis vinifera) and American Concord grapes (Vitis labrusca) are different species. The latter carries an aroma the literature calls "foxy". In 2020, Yang and colleagues found its genetic switch in Horticulture Research:

'Concord', the most well-known juice grape with a parentage of the North American grape species Vitis labrusca L., possesses a special 'foxy' aroma predominantly resulted from the accumulation of methyl anthranilate (MA) in berries. This aroma, however, is often perceived as an undesirable attribute by wine consumers and rarely noticeable in the common table and wine grape species V. vinifera. Here we discovered homology-induced promoter indels as a major genetic mechanism for species-specific regulation of a key 'foxy' aroma gene, AMAT.

Two things stand out. First, what changed is not the gene itself but the promoter, the stretch that decides how hard the gene runs. Both species carry the same enzyme; the difference sits on the switch. Second, the authors wrote "often perceived as an undesirable attribute". The same molecule is childhood in a soda and a fault in a wine. Liking was never a property of the molecule.

In plants it does more than smell pleasant

A 2024 study describes methyl anthranilate as an anti-herbivore defence volatile and compares biosynthetic routes in grapes, sweet orange and maize. The signalling story is in What plants, yeast and bees do with the same aroma molecules; this guide keeps the dose-dependent distance between grape soda and white flowers.

When you smell it

The first time I built a neroli accord with it I got it wrong. I reasoned that it is "a component of neroli" and went straight to 2%. The whole glass turned into grape soda and the neroli disappeared. Its role inside the flower is a supporting one. Push a supporting player to the front and the play collapses.

• Start below 0.5%. The grape face is stronger than the orange flower face, and at higher levels only the grape survives.
• To understand its two faces, make two blotters: one at 1%, one at 0.05%. The strong one is grape candy. Only the dilute one lets orange flower and powder come up.
• It is the fruity bridge in a white floral. Using it next to indole is instructive: indole pulls toward animalic, this pulls toward fruit, and both are hiding in the same flower.
• Being heavier than water matters at the bench. Measuring by volume (drops, mL) will underestimate its weight, so formulate by mass.

Regulatory and safety

Listed in GRAS, JECFA, CoE, FEMA GRAS (FEMA 2682) and IFRA. The listings themselves carry no limits, so for anything going on skin check the current IFRA Standards and your supplier's specification.

It has a long history as a flavour material — most grape-flavoured sweets and sodas contain it. Being safe in food is not the same evaluation as being safe on skin at high concentration.

How to buy it

1. Natural and synthetic are both sold. Natural is usually isolated from orange flower or citrus and costs noticeably more. For practice, buy synthetic; the molecule is the same one.
2. Buy the smallest pack of a 10% dilution. With 88 suppliers there is no reason to stock up.
3. To complete the white floral thread, buy it alongside indole, jasmine absolute and benzyl acetate. Smell the four side by side and "white floral" stops being one vague word.

→ Methyl anthranilate in the database: full properties, 88 suppliers, suggested blenders. → Indole | Jasmine absolute | Search by odour: try "grape floral" and it comes up near the top.

References

Y. Yang, J. Cuenca, N. Wang, Z. Liang, H. Sun, B. Gutierrez, X. Xi, J. Arro, Y. Wang, P. Fan, J. Londo, P. Cousins, S. Li, Z. Fei & G. Zhong, A key 'foxy' aroma gene is regulated by homology-induced promoter indels in the iconic juice grape 'Concord', Horticulture Research, 7(1), 67 (2020). PMID 32337050

M. A. Fallon, H. Tadfie, A. P. Watson, M. M. Dyke, C. Flores, N. Cook, Z. Fei & C. K. Holland, Molecular basis of one-step methyl anthranilate biosynthesis in grapes, sweet orange, and maize, The Plant Journal, 119(5), 2363–2374 (2024). PMID 38976445