Hexyl Butyrate

What Hexyl Butyrate smells like

Hexyl butyrate is a green, fruity ester with an apple character and a waxy, slightly soapy skin. Supplier data list green, sweet, fruity, apple, waxy and soapy; a perfumery entry green, fruity, estery and vegetative with a waxy undertone; Blue Marble's natural grade green, fruity, sweet, soapy and waxy, apple-like. Its taste is green, fruity, waxy and soapy.

Leading note

Green apple

Clear facets

Waxy skin

Supporting facets

Soapy

Faint facets

Vegetative

Character

Green, waxy, fresh

• fruity
• green apple
• fresh
• waxy

What makes Hexyl Butyrate distinctive

Apple skin rather than apple flesh: green and waxy, with a faint soapiness.

How Hexyl Butyrate is used

Used in green-apple and fresh fruity accords and in flavours.

Typical role: modifier (used in small amounts to change the character of a blend).

How Hexyl Butyrate differs from similar materials

Hexyl 2-Methylbutyrate

The 2-methylbutyrate adds banana, unripe strawberry and a woody, spicy-tropical nuance; hexyl butyrate is plainer green apple and wax.

cis-3-Hexenyl Butyrate

The cis-3-hexenyl ester is greener and buttery-brandy; hexyl butyrate is a waxy, soapy green apple.

Each difference compares the published descriptions of the two materials. Smell varies with grade, supplier and dilution; compare them side by side on blotters before substituting one for another.

Identity and classification

Type

Aroma chemical

Origin

Occurs in nature

Odour family

Fruity / Green

Note position

Top note

Physical form at room temperature

Liquid

Also known as

Hexyl butanoate

CAS number

2639-63-6

Molecular formula

C10H20O2

Molecular weight

172.26 g/mol

IUPAC name

hexyl butanoate

The CAS number, formula and molecular weight are taken from PubChem compound 17525, whose own record lists this CAS number; checked 19 October 2026.

Safety and compliance

Hazard classification of the neat substance, as PubChem summarises it, read 26 October 2026. Companies notifying the ECHA C&L Inventory report it as not meeting the GHS hazard criteria (1,650 of 1,679 reports). Unless it is harmonised, this is the notifiers' own classification, not a binding one.

This page is general information, not a safety assessment or a specification. Confirm identity, composition, IFRA status and allergen content from your supplier's documents for the lot you hold.

Materials it works with

• Hexyl Acetate

  Aroma chemical · Fruity / Green — pear, apple, fruity, green

• Hexyl 2-Methylbutyrate

  Aroma chemical · Fruity / Green — green apple, fruity, strawberry, fresh

• cis-3-Hexenyl Acetate

  Aroma chemical · Green / Fruity — green, fruity, unripe banana, fresh

• Manzanate

  Aroma chemical · Fruity / Green — apple, fruity, fresh

Hexyl Butyrate is also suggested as a partner on the pages for cis-3-Hexenyl Butyrate.

Used in formulas and accords

Used in 1 published formula

Hexyl Butyrate is an ingredient in 1 perfume formula in the Formula & Accord Library.

RUŌOD House Originals

Original compositions by RUŌOD House.

• Apple Cellar

  RUŌOD House Original · listed as “Hexyl Butyrate 10% DPG”, at 10% in DPG

Further reading

• Fruity Notes in Perfumery: Esters, Lactones and Ketones

  How fruit is built in perfumery from esters, lactones, ketones and sulfur materials, why 'C-14' is a lactone, dosage, stability and restrictions.

Questions about Hexyl Butyrate

Sources

• PubChem — compound 17525, checked 19 October 2026.
• PubChem — GHS classification (the ECHA C&L Inventory notifications and any harmonised EU entry), read 26 October 2026.
• The Good Scents Company — hexyl butyrate (Mosciano and supplier descriptions) — odour database.
• Perflavory — hexyl butyrate — odour database.
• Olfactory profile: the RUŌOD Lab team's synthesis of the published descriptions above, reviewed 20 October 2026. Evidence: more than one published description. Classification and the short description: revision 1. Descriptions of odour are judgement, not measurement.