Indoor environment factor · measured in µg/m³
Terpenes
Part of: Volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
Also: terpene, terpenoid, terpenoids, isoprenoids
A large family of volatile compounds built from isoprene units, made by plants and by the wood, oils and fragrances taken from them. They are the smell of citrus, pine and lavender, and indoors they are among the most abundant volatile organic compounds present.
What it is
Terpenes reach indoor air by two routes that are easy to confuse. One is material: solid wood, especially softwood, releases them as it dries and ages, which is what a newly panelled room smells of. The other is deliberate: they are the active fragrance in cleaning products, air fresheners, candles and personal care products, and a household adds them to its own air on purpose, several times a day.
What makes them more than an odour is their reactivity. The carbon–carbon double bond that gives a terpene its scent also reacts readily with ozone, and the reaction does not end in nothing: it produces aldehydes, other oxidised compounds and new ultrafine particles, in the room, within minutes. This indoor chemistry is why a pleasant-smelling room can have a worse measured composition than an unscented one.
The best-studied member is limonene.
What the studies report
| Linked to | Effect | Population | Study design | Source | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | other 22 | — · spa treatment room | measurement study in spa salons in Gdynia, Poland: total volatile organic compounds and individual terpenes sampled before, during and after massage treatments, with the applied essential oils recorded | F-1044 Pytel Investigation on air quality of specific indoor environments… (2021) | machine |
| — | other 86 | — · spa treatment room | measurement study in spa salons in Gdynia, Poland: total volatile organic compounds and individual terpenes sampled before, during and after massage treatments, with the applied essential oils recorded | F-1045 Pytel Investigation on air quality of specific indoor environments… (2021) | machine |
| — | a stated direction without a number; their 95th percentiles stayed fairly stable | — · office | analysis of the volatile organic compound measurements the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health made in offices, schools, kindergartens and healthcare buildings between 2010 and 2019: detection frequencies, 95th and 99th percentiles and maxima of 42 compounds against German and European guideline values | F-1064 Wallenius et al. Volatile Organic Compounds in Finnish Office Environments in… | machine |
| Cleaning products | mean 7.5 | — · hotel break room | measurement study of volatile organic compounds in a hotel in the United States: personal samplers worn by room cleaners, housekeepers, office and maintenance workers together with stationary samples in guest rooms, the laundry room, the lobby, the offices and the break room, and the content of the cleaning products themselves | F-1378 Lin et al. Occupational Exposure and Health Risks of Volatile Organic C… (2021) | machine |
| Cleaning products | mean 0.9 | — · hotel (other indoor sites) | measurement study of volatile organic compounds in a hotel in the United States: personal samplers worn by room cleaners, housekeepers, office and maintenance workers together with stationary samples in guest rooms, the laundry room, the lobby, the offices and the break room, and the content of the cleaning products themselves | F-1379 Lin et al. Occupational Exposure and Health Risks of Volatile Organic C… (2021) | machine |
| Cleaning products | mean 7.8 | — · personal exposure of the maintenance worker | measurement study of volatile organic compounds in a hotel in the United States: personal samplers worn by room cleaners, housekeepers, office and maintenance workers together with stationary samples in guest rooms, the laundry room, the lobby, the offices and the break room, and the content of the cleaning products themselves | F-1382 Lin et al. Occupational Exposure and Health Risks of Volatile Organic C… (2021) | machine |
| Cleaning products | difference 41 | — · child's bedroom | cross-sectional study within a birth cohort: volatile organic compounds sampled in the children's bedrooms and related to the reported sources, the surface materials, the cleaning habits and the measured indoor humidity and temperature | F-1588 Sources of propylene glycol and glycol ethers in air at home (2010) | machine |
Each row is one Finding — a sentence as printed in one study, recorded with its page in the Coridum Knowledge Base. Follow the Finding number for the exact wording and the citation. Checked says who verified the row: machine means every automatic check passed and the surrounding text was read; person means someone read the sentence in the document. Rows are re-checked by a person over time. The studies are curated in the Coridum Knowledge Base; the reading of them together is a Claim, shown separately.
Identifiers
- MeSH
- D013729
Cite this page
Coridum Research. Terpenes. Coridum Knowledge G-0138, 16 September 2026. https://coridum.com/k/G-0138/