Ethyl caprylate (ethyl octanoate) is a kind of fatty acid ester formed from caprylic acid and ethanol. It is a kind of natural fruit flavoring agent. It is usually included in the alcohol beverage. Among the main flavoring components of None-flavor liquor, the absolute content of ethyl caprylate is not high but its flavoring contributions is higher than ethyl acetate, ethyl lactate, and ethyl butyrate, only lower than ethyl caproate. Only small amount of ethyl caprylate could produce obvious fruit aroma in Nong-flavor liquor. However, excessive content of ethyl caprylate would inhibit the performance of other flavoring components.
Ethyl octanoate has a pleasant, fruity, floral odor (wine–apricot note)
Ethyl Octanoate is a liquid with a
fruity, floral odor. It occurs in many fruits and alcoholic beverages and is used in
fruit flavors.
Reported found in apple, apricot, orange juice, grapefruit juice, guava, pineapple, cheddar cheese, other cheeses,
butter, beer, cognac, rum, whiskey, cider, grape wines, cocoa, coconut meat, passion fruit, mango, pawpaw and mastic gum leaf oil.
Ethyl caprylate is a flavoring and fragrance agent.
Ethyl octanoate, found in Burgundy wine, was used to study its partition co-efficient in water in model wine using the headspace method.
manufacture of fruit ethers; constituent of enanthic, cocoic, and cognac ethers.
ChEBI: A fatty acid ethyl ester resulting from the formal condensation of octanoic acid with ethanol.
Usually prepared by esterification of caprylic acid with ethyl alcohol and sulfuric acid as catalyst; also by alcoholysis of
coconut oil in the presence of HCl.
Taste characteristics at 5 ppm: waxy, fatty, aldehydic, coconut, creamy and dairy-like.
Ethyl octanoate is a powerful odourant found in mead (a traditional drink that contains alcohol).
Flammability and Explosibility
Not classified
Mddly toxic by
ingestion. A skin irritant. Combustible
liquid. When heated to decomposition it
emits acrid smoke and irritating fumes. See also ESTERS.
Not listed by ACGIH, California
Proposition 65, IARC, NTP, or OSHA.
Aliphatic esters including ethyl caprylate are thought to be readily hydrolysed to the corresponding alcohol and acid, which are then further metabolized (Fassett, 1963). Oral adminis tration of ethyl caprylate to rats produced a ketonuria twice as great as that from acetoacetate, indicating the formation of two fragments for the production of ketone bodies, and it was suggested that caprylic acid was probably broken down by a process involving multiple alternate oxidation (Deuel, Hallman, Butts & Murray, 1936).
Powers, John J. "HETEROGENEITY AND TEMPERATURE EFFECTS ON FLAVOR SENSING OF ETHYL CAPRYLATE." Journal of Food Science 42.1(2010):275-276.
Zhibin, L. I., and L. I. Jin. "Analysis of the Content of Ethyl Caprylate in Nong-flavor Liquor and Its Flavoring Contributions." Liquor-Making Science & Technology (2013).
