Indole

The page’s line on indole, fecal at high concentration and narcotic in trace, is the house’s editorial and is kept as such. Its odour threshold in water is 11 micrograms per kilogram, as measured by a food-chemistry institute’s panel.

Read the essay · The card · The material · Turn it in 3D

In your room

A model you can turn here or place in your room with a phone. Nothing is fetched until you ask; nothing is stored or sent. Everything you can place in a room.

molecule

The indole molecule

A computed 3D conformer , modeled, not a photograph of a molecule. PubChem CID 798.

To place it in your room, open this page on an iPhone or iPad (AR Quick Look) or an Android phone (Google Scene Viewer). The files below open in any 3D viewer.

PubChem’s computed 3D conformer of indole (CID 798, conformer 0000031E00000001): the shape a computer model gives the molecule, not an experimental structure and not a picture of a real molecule. Ball and stick: 8 carbon, 1 nitrogen; the 7 hydrogen atoms are left out for clarity. The balls are drawn smaller than the atoms’ real reach; a double bond is two sticks, side by side.

In the room

scaled so that one ångström is 4 cm (about 400 million times life size): 14 cm tall, 20.9 cm across

Atoms

8 carbon, 1 nitrogen · 10 bonds between them

Colours

carbon: ink sepia-2; nitrogen: a muted slate (no palette blue); bonds: brass. Colour is a convention here and never carries the meaning alone: the letters on the drawing and this list say which atom is which.

Source

PubChem, CID 798 (National Center for Biotechnology Information), its computed 3D conformer as filed on this record

Licence

PubChem’s data are public (NCBI); the model and its drawing were made for this site from those coordinates

The files GLB 21 KB · USDZ 47 KB · the drawing (SVG) 4 KB

The record

Each field carries its evidence: open a chip for the source, the quoted words and the confidence. A field with nothing behind it says so and stays empty.

Name

indole

documented

Indole

PUBCHEM-798 · PubChem Compound Summary for CID 798, Indole · read 2026-09-27

confidence A

CAS

120-72-9

documented

verified: the CAS is among the CID's PubChem synonyms

PUBCHEM-798 · PubChem Compound Summary for CID 798, Indole · read 2026-09-27

confidence A

PubChem CID

798

documented

PUBCHEM-798 · PubChem Compound Summary for CID 798, Indole · read 2026-09-27

confidence A

Formula

C8H7N

documented

PUBCHEM-798 · PubChem Compound Summary for CID 798, Indole · read 2026-09-27

confidence A

Molecular weight

117.15

documented

PUBCHEM-798 · PubChem Compound Summary for CID 798, Indole · read 2026-09-27

g/mol, as PubChem states it

confidence A

IUPAC name

1H-indole

documented

PUBCHEM-798 · PubChem Compound Summary for CID 798, Indole · read 2026-09-27

confidence A

SMILES

C1=CC=C2C(=C1)C=CN2

documented

PUBCHEM-798 · PubChem Compound Summary for CID 798, Indole · read 2026-09-27

confidence A

InChIKey

SIKJAQJRHWYJAI-UHFFFAOYSA-N

documented

PUBCHEM-798 · PubChem Compound Summary for CID 798, Indole · read 2026-09-27

confidence A

Odour threshold

11 µg/kg in water (orthonasal odour detection threshold in water, determined by the method of Czerny et al. 2008, Eur Food Res Technol 228:265–273, as the database states)

measured

OT-1 · Kreissl et al. (2022). Leibniz-LSB@TUM Odorant Database, Version 1.2 · read 2026-09-30

in air, 0.00030 ppm (v/v) by the triangle odour bag method (OT-3). The database’s odour quality is “fecal, mothball-like” (OT-1); the record’s descriptors stay the house’s editorial

confidence A

Descriptors

fecal at high concentration, narcotic at trace levels

house interpretation

the house’s own reading, labelled as such

the page’s olfactory editorial, kept as editorial by the house’s review (the claims register); no descriptor source is filed

where the site says it: /materials, “Jasminum grandiflorum”

confidence C

Volatility class

not on record

not on record

the house’s volatility table (modeled) has no entry for indole

Regulation

not on record

not on record

no Regulation record yet

3D structure

PubChem computed 3D conformer · 16 atoms, 17 bonds

modeled

PUBCHEM-798 · PubChem Compound Summary for CID 798, Indole · read 2026-09-27

PubChem’s computed 3D conformer: a model, drawn schematically, not an experimental structure (the house’s molecules data note)

confidence A

Wikidata

Q319541

documented

P662 PubChem CID: 798

WD-1 · Wikidata (Wikimedia Foundation) · read 2026-09-30

the item states PubChem CID 798 (P662) and the record’s InChIKey (P235); found by the statement search haswbstatement:P662=798

confidence A

Odeuropa

EOKG concept

documented

{"concept":"http://data.odeuropa.eu/vocabulary/flavornet/odorants/175","relation":"owl:sameAs","via":"Q319541","label":"indole","scheme":"http://data.odeuropa.eu/vocabulary/flavornet/odorants/"}

ODEUROPA-1 · Lisena, P., Ehrhart, T., Troncy, R · read 2026-09-30

the EOKG concept “indole” states owl:sameAs Q319541 and the record’s CAS (wdt:P231); other linked concepts: http://data.odeuropa.eu/vocabulary/dravnieks/odorants/83

confidence A

Occurs in

In teaching accords

• A white floral, indolic

Claims register

Every sentence and number the site states about this record, with its status after the 2026-09-27 review.

• verified · CAS 120-72-9
  documented · the claims register

  PUBCHEM-798 · PubChem Compound Summary for CID 798, Indole · read 2026-09-27

  the CAS is among the PubChem synonyms of CID 798 (the house’s molecule table)

  confidence A

• unverified · At high concentration it is objectively fecal. At the trace levels present in jasmine absolute, it produces the headily narcotic depth that makes white flowers so seductive.
  house interpretation · the claims register

  the house’s own reading, labelled as such

  kept by the house’s review as olfactory editorial (no number); no descriptor source is filed

  where the site says it: /materials, “Jasminum grandiflorum”

  confidence C

• verified · C₈H₇N
  documented · the claims register

  PUBCHEM-798 · PubChem Compound Summary for CID 798, Indole · read 2026-09-27

  PubChem gives MolecularFormula C8H7N for CID 798 (the house’s molecule table)

  where the site says it: /materials, “Jasminum grandiflorum”

  confidence A

Sources

1. PUBCHEM-798 · PubChem Compound Summary for CID 798, Indole (1H-indole). National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), U.S. National Library of Medicine; live database, read 2026-09-27 through the PUG REST endpoints listed in the house’s molecules data. pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/798 · read 2026-09-27 · public domain (US government work, NCBI/NLM); acknowledgement requested , cite PubChem
2. OT-1 · Kreissl J, Mall V, Steinhaus P, Steinhaus M. Leibniz-LSB@TUM Odorant Database, Version 1.2. Leibniz Institute for Food Systems Biology at the Technical University of Munich: Freising, Germany, 2022. www.leibniz-lsb.de/en/databases/leibniz-lsbtum-o… · read 2026-09-30 · free of charge; scientific use encouraged with full acknowledgement; systematic download or reproduction needs written permission (quoted, not reproduced)
3. OT-3 · Nagata Y. Measurement of Odor Threshold by Triangle Odor Bag Method. In: Odor Measurement Review, pp. 118–127. Ministry of the Environment, Government of Japan (undated on the page; about 2003). www.env.go.jp/en/air/odor/measure/02_3_2.pdf · read 2026-09-30 · no reuse licence stated; short quotes and single facts only, under fair use (quoted, not reproduced)
4. WD-1 · Wikidata (Wikimedia Foundation): the items named on each record (each statement read with its references), read 2026-09-30. www.wikidata.org · read 2026-09-30 · CC0 1.0
5. ODEUROPA-1 · Lisena, P., Ehrhart, T., Troncy, R. European Olfactory Knowledge Graph (EOKG), Odeuropa project. Zenodo, 2024. doi:10.5281/zenodo.10709703. SPARQL endpoint https://data.odeuropa.eu/repositories/odeuropa, read 2026-09-30. doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10709703 · read 2026-09-30 · CC BY 4.0

Our text and structure are CC BY 4.0; quoted source text stays under its owners’ terms.

this record as data: /data/molecule/indole.json · version 5 · updated 2026-10-01 · confidence A