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Butylphenyl methylpropional (p-BMHCA, Lilial)

Butylphenyl methylpropional, better known by a trade name, is a synthetic aldehyde whose smell recalls lily of the valley.

It was prohibited in EU cosmetic products from 1 March 2022, as a substance classified toxic for reproduction; IFRA’s Standard, an industry standard and not law, restricts it and excludes it from lipsticks and oral care. US law on it is not on record here. Its identity is PubChem’s.

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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.

An engraved drawing of the butylphenyl methylpropional (p-BMHCA, Lilial) model: hatched atoms joined by ruled bonds, the hydrogens left out.

molecule

The butylphenyl methylpropional (p-BMHCA, Lilial) molecule

A computed 3D conformer , modeled, not a photograph of a molecule. PubChem CID 228987.

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 butylphenyl methylpropional (p-BMHCA, Lilial) (CID 228987, conformer 00037E7B00000001): the shape a computer model gives the molecule, not an experimental structure and not a picture of a real molecule. Ball and stick: 14 carbon, 1 oxygen; the 20 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): 14.1 cm tall, 41.6 cm across
Atoms
14 carbon, 1 oxygen · 15 bonds between them
Colours
carbon: ink sepia-2; oxygen: rose highlight; 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 228987 (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 23 KB · USDZ 52 KB · the drawing (SVG) 5 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
butylphenyl methylpropional (p-BMHCA, Lilial)
documented

83 2-(4-tert-Butylbenzyl)propionaldehyde Butylphenyl methylpropional 80-54-6

EU-2009-1223 · Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 November 2009 on cosmetic products… · read 2026-09-30

the name EU law uses (INCI), with IFRA’s abbreviation; PubChem’s title for CID 228987 is "Lilial", a trade name (LIL-1’s keywords: "lysmeral, butylphenyl methylpropional, lily aldehyde, lilial")

confidence A

CAS
80-54-6
documented

80-54-6

PUBCHEM-228987 · PubChem Compound Summary for CID 228987, Lilial · read 2026-09-30

among the CID’s PubChem synonyms, and PubChem resolves it back to this CID

confidence A

PubChem CID
228987
documented

PUBCHEM-228987 · PubChem Compound Summary for CID 228987, Lilial · read 2026-09-30

confidence A

Formula
C14H20O
documented

PUBCHEM-228987 · PubChem Compound Summary for CID 228987, Lilial · read 2026-09-30

confidence A

Molecular weight
204.31
documented

PUBCHEM-228987 · PubChem Compound Summary for CID 228987, Lilial · read 2026-09-30

g/mol, as PubChem states it

confidence A

IUPAC name
3-(4-tert-butylphenyl)-2-methylpropanal
documented

PUBCHEM-228987 · PubChem Compound Summary for CID 228987, Lilial · read 2026-09-30

confidence A

SMILES
CC(CC1=CC=C(C=C1)C(C)(C)C)C=O
documented

PUBCHEM-228987 · PubChem Compound Summary for CID 228987, Lilial · read 2026-09-30

confidence A

InChIKey
SDQFDHOLCGWZPU-UHFFFAOYSA-N
documented

PUBCHEM-228987 · PubChem Compound Summary for CID 228987, Lilial · read 2026-09-30

confidence A

Odour threshold
withheld: not on record
withheld

no odour-threshold source on record

Descriptors
lily of the valley
documented

Lysmeral (2-(4-tert-butylbenzyl)propionaldehyde) is a synthetically produced aliphatic-aromatic aldehyde reminiscent of the smell of lily of the valley.

LIL-1 · Fichter SC, Groth K, Fiedler N, Kolossa-Gehring M, Dębiak M, on behalf of the INGER Study Group · read 2026-09-30

confidence A

Volatility class
not on record
not on record

no volatility class on record for p bmhca (the house’s volatility table has no entry)

Regulation
documented

IFRA-015, EU-2009-1223, EU-2021-1902: each record above quotes its entry.

3D structure
PubChem computed 3D conformer · 35 atoms, 35 bonds
modeled

PUBCHEM-228987 · PubChem Compound Summary for CID 228987, Lilial · read 2026-09-30

PubChem’s computed 3D conformer (the 3D SDF record): a model, drawn schematically, not an experimental structure

confidence A

Wikidata
Q209290
documented

P662 PubChem CID: 228987

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

the item states PubChem CID 228987 (P662) and the record’s InChIKey (P235); found by the statement search haswbstatement:P662=228987

confidence A

Occurs in
    In teaching accords
    In history

    Sources

    1. PUBCHEM-228987 · PubChem Compound Summary for CID 228987, Lilial (3-(4-tert-butylphenyl)-2-methylpropanal). National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), U.S. National Library of Medicine; live database, read 2026-09-30 through the PUG REST endpoints (no account): https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/rest/pug/compound/name/80-54-6/cids/JSON · https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/rest/pug/compound/cid/228987/property/MolecularFormula,MolecularWeight,IUPACName,Title,SMILES,InChIKey/JSON · https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/rest/pug/compound/cid/228987/synonyms/JSON · https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/rest/pug/compound/cid/228987/SDF?record_type=3d. pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/228987 · read 2026-09-30 · public domain (US government work, NCBI/NLM); acknowledgement requested , cite PubChem
    2. EU-2009-1223 · Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 November 2009 on cosmetic products (recast). OJ L 342, 22.12.2009, p. 59. eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2009/1223/oj · read 2026-09-30 · EU reuse policy (Commission Decision 2011/833/EU): reuse for commercial or non-commercial purposes, with acknowledgement of the source
    3. 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
    4. LIL-1 · Fichter SC, Groth K, Fiedler N, Kolossa-Gehring M, Dębiak M, on behalf of the INGER Study Group. Lysmeral Exposure in Children and Adolescences Participating in the German Environmental Survey (2012-2015): Integrating Sex/Gender into Analysis. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2022;19(24):17072. DOI 10.3390/ijerph192417072. PMID 36554956. PMCID PMC9778794. doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192417072 · 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/p-bmhca.json · version 4 · updated 2026-10-01 · confidence A