Registration Dossier
Registration Dossier
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EC number: 216-074-4 | CAS number: 1490-04-6
Melting point / freezing point
Administrative data
Link to relevant study record(s)
Description of key information
The melting range of Menthol (CAS no. 89 -78 -1) is 41 - 43°C (Merck Index, 2006).
Key value for chemical safety assessment
Additional information
Hypothesis for the read-across approach:
REACH regulation (Corrigendum) EC 1907/2006 on page L 136/120: “Substances whose physicochemical, toxicological and ecotoxicological properties are likely to be similar or follow a regular pattern as a result of structural similarity may be considered as a group, or ‘category’ of substances. Application of the group concept requires that physicochemical properties, human health effects and environmental effects or environmental fate may be predicted from data for reference substance(s) within the group by interpolation to other substances in the group (read-across approach).” Further, ECHA guidance document “Guidance on information requirements and chemical safety assessment – Chapter R.6: QSARs and grouping of chemicals (May, 2008)” provides information on the use of read-across (page 78) as follows: “In the read-across technique, endpoint information for one chemical is used to predict the same endpoint for another chemical, which is considered to be similar in some way (usually on the basis of structural similarity). In principle, read-across can be applied to characterise physico-chemical properties, environmental fate, human health effects and ecotoxicity.” It can be stated that menthols act as a prime example of substances that are suitable for read-across since menthols are (stereo)isomeres and, thus ideally fulfill the recommended criteria of structural similarity. Further, the OECD SIDS report on menthols (2003) assessed data of the isomers L-menthol (CAS no. 2216-51-5), D-menthol (CAS no. 15356-60-2), the racemate and menthol (unspecified isomers; CAS no. 1490-04-6). The report concludes on page 4 that “the menthols can be considered as a category because of their similarity in physico-chemical, toxicological, ecotoxicological and environmental fate properties” which is another requirement to justify the application of the read-across approach. In the OECD SIDS report (2003) the physical properties of the enantiomeric menthols are given to be identically (apart from their specific rotation). Racemats are described to differ from the optically active forms in, for example, their melting points. However, the report gives that the slight differences in the cited data are within the range of uncertainty range of laboratory tests. Thus, read-across is possible and data from a peer-reviewed handbook on D,L-menthol (CAS no. 89-78-1) was used that gives a melting range of 41 - 43 °C (Merck Index, 2006).
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