Nootkatene is a sesquiterpene hydrocarbon associated with yellow-cedar and related nootkatane-type wood chemistries rather than with the much better-known oxygenated aroma compound nootkatone. In the AromaForge archive it appears in Bengali nagarmotha essential oil as a minor constituent. Live public evidence supports strong identity data and some compositional literature, but constituent-specific safety and mechanism data are thin; many bioactivity discussions in the wider literature actually concern nootkatone or whole cedarwood oils rather than isolated nootkatene.
Chemical identity and composition
PubChem and NIST both identify nootkatene as C15H22 with CAS 5090-61-9 and a tricyclic eremophilane-related hydrocarbon skeleton. The most important interpretation issue is name confusion: nootkatene is the hydrocarbon, while nootkatone is the oxygenated grapefruit-impact ketone that has a much larger literature and different regulatory profile. In the local archive, Bengali nagarmotha lists nootkatene at 1.08%.
Aroma and practical use
- Use the recorded woody, dry, grapefruit-like, cedar-like, terpenic descriptors to explore a blend's scent character; perceived strength also depends on the other ingredients.
- Review the flagged use concerns across every contributing oil and the selected dilution.
- Read the route, preparation and experimental context before using a study finding to choose an oil.
Reported benefits and effects
Findings retain their study context. An animal or laboratory result describes that experiment.
A 2005 yellow-cedar heartwood chemistry study tracked nootkatene alongside carvacrol, nootkatol, nootkatone, and nootkatin across live trees and long-standing snags.
The abstract reports that, unlike several companion extractives, nootkatene did not show the same decline pattern between snag classes 2 and 5, highlighting its use as a compositional wood-chemistry marker rather than a direct bioactivity lead.
This reference does not establish a therapeutic result or a safe use level for a custom oil blend.
A 2026 cedarwood-oil review states that nootkatane sesquiterpenoids are characteristic of Callitropsis nootkatensis wood oils.
This supports archive framing of nootkatene as part of a recognizable cedarwood sesquiterpene pattern rather than as an independently well-characterized therapeutic constituent.
This reference does not establish a therapeutic result or a safe use level for a custom oil blend.
Use concerns and concentration limits
Sensitization concernFlagged
Flagged in the constituent reference; assess the source, route and finished-product concentration.
Phototoxicity concernNot flagged
Not flagged in the current model. This is not proof of absence or unrestricted safety.
Oxidation concernNot flagged
Not flagged in the current model. This is not proof of absence or unrestricted safety.
Penetration enhancementNot flagged
Not flagged in the current model. This is not proof of absence or unrestricted safety.
Screening assumption (family fallback). It is not a verified constituent-specific exposure limit.
model fallback · Essential Oil Safety and Dermal Limits — sesquiterpenes generally do not have safety concerns; beta-caryophyllene RIFM fragrance material safety dataThis research pass did not locate a public, constituent-specific fragrance safety assessment for isolated nootkatene.
This reference does not establish a therapeutic result or a safe use level for a custom oil blend.
No direct public citation is attached to this entry.
Nootkatene should not inherit the consumer-facing insect-repellent safety or efficacy claims often attached to nootkatone without constituent-specific support.
This reference does not establish a therapeutic result or a safe use level for a custom oil blend.
No direct public citation is attached to this entry.
Because accessible literature is mostly compositional, safety interpretation is better anchored to the parent oil and finished-formula context than to standalone nootkatene assumptions.
This reference does not establish a therapeutic result or a safe use level for a custom oil blend.
No direct public citation is attached to this entry.
Constituents it may interact with
No constituent-pair interaction is recorded for this identity. The report does not assume either amplification or incompatibility.
How the effects were investigated
no isolated constituent-specific mechanism established in accessible sources
The reviewed public sources did not establish a standalone biological mechanism for isolated nootkatene comparable to the arthropod-repellent literature often cited for nootkatone.
This reference does not establish a therapeutic result or a safe use level for a custom oil blend.
No direct public citation is attached to this entry.
biosynthetic or oxidative relationship to nootkatone-class materials
Chemical and industrial literature often places nootkatene in the same transformation neighborhood as nootkatol and nootkatone, which is relevant to identity and oxidation context more than to direct benefit claims.
This reference does not establish a therapeutic result or a safe use level for a custom oil blend.
No direct public citation is attached to this entry.
What this report cannot establish
- A reported constituent percentage does not establish an effective human therapeutic dose or the amount absorbed into the body.
- The presence of a constituent does not guarantee a clinical benefit, rash treatment or sleep improvement from a custom blend.
- An unflagged concern or missing use limit does not establish safety for ingestion, inhalation, skin exposure or a particular person.
- A candidate constituent interaction does not establish that two oils amplify one another at the selected proportions.
- Constituent descriptors alone do not establish a precise top, heart or base lifetime in a finished blend.
Known data gaps (6)
- Public constituent-specific mechanism, toxicology, and fragrance-safety literature for isolated nootkatene was sparse.
- The name is easy to confuse with nootkatone, whose larger regulatory and efficacy literature should not be merged into this record.
- This pass did not verify a strong human or even isolated-compound preclinical efficacy literature for nootkatene itself.
- 2026-07-13 dermal-safety pass: no IFRA Standard or RIFM safety assessment exists for nootkatene (CAS 5090-61-9); The Good Scents Company record (thegoodscentscompany.com/data/rw1560661.html) lists it as 'not for fragrance use' with dermal toxicity 'Not determined'. Checked whether the record's prior dermal_limit_pct:25/sensitizing:true values belonged to the related compound nootkatone (CAS 4674-50-4) instead: the primary RIFM nootkatone assessment (Api et al. 2020, Food Chem Toxicol 141:111426, fragrancematerialsafetyresource.elsevier.com) states nootkatone 'does not present a concern for skin sensitization under the current, declared levels of use' and is 'not expected to be phototoxic/photoallergenic' -- i.e. RIFM's own conclusion is the opposite of sensitizing:true, and no explicit numeric dermal-limit percentage appears in that document. The prior dermal_limit_pct:25 and sensitizing:true values had no valid citation under either compound and have been cleared to null.
- No constituent-specific numeric dermal reference is available here.
- Some findings do not record an explicit exposure route; consult the linked study before applying them to a use.