Also named hexadecanoic acid in SmellBook’s evidence.
A molecule is one chemical compound. SmellBook lists palmitic acid because a VERIFIED claim names it in the evidence for 1 Atlas entry: Hair.
What it is
These identifiers pin down exactly which compound is meant, so the same molecule can be found in other databases. They say nothing about how it smells.
Checked against PubChem and Wikidata on 2026-10-14 by an automated identifier check. Every name SmellBook uses must resolve to the same single PubChem compound.
Where research reports it
Each report below is a VERIFIED claim, quoted with its scope and the source it rests on. The role says what the claim states about the molecule, in the claim’s own words.
Major component · the claim says “the main ones being”
The study found a lot of it. A large amount does not by itself mean it shapes the smell.
Volatiles collected from the human scalp, which the authors call human scalp odour, included 24 identified compounds, the main ones being nonanal, sulcatone, geranylacetone and palmitic acid.
Scope: Volatiles from the human scalp, which the Hair entry includes, collected in a study of what attracts head lice; the abstract does not say whether they were taken from the hair or the skin, or how many people were sampled; composition only, with no assessment of how it smells.
Any cause and effect beyond the claim's own words. SmellBook does not add that the molecule causes, or is, the smell of an entry; most smells come from many compounds together.
How the pure molecule smells on its own. SmellBook does not describe the odour of single molecules in its own words; a claim may only quote what a study's assessors noted.
How much of it there is, or whether people can smell it at the amounts measured, unless a claim says so.
That it is absent from smells not listed here. A missing entry means no registered claim names it there.
Anything about safety or health.
WHAT THIS MEANS
SmellBook lists a molecule only where a VERIFIED claim names it, in the role and scope that claim states. A molecule reported in a smell's evidence is not the whole smell: most smells come from many compounds together, and the studies measured particular samples, such as one cultivar, an essential oil or a cooked product.
Cite as SmellBook. (2026). palmitic acid (molecule). SmellBook knowledge graph, unreleased changes since the dataset release of 2026-10-07. smellbook:molecule:palmitic-acid. https://smellbook.com/molecules/palmitic-acid
Dataset history Not yet in a dataset release; it will appear in the next one.