ChemIDplus: A Free, Web-Based Portal to Compound-Based Information

The ChemIDplus database was developed by the Specialized Information Services Division of the National Library of Medicine. ChemIDplus has been on-line for about 5 years at http://chem.sis.nlm.nih.gov/chemidplus/ providing researchers with access to information about pharmaceutical, industrial and environmental compounds. It covers over 360,000 substances, including more than 175,000 structures.. Records may be retrieved by name, structure (including substructure and similarity), CAS Registry Number, molecular formula, and usage category. A new chemical spelling feature checks all failed name searches for possible correct matches in the database. Once a compound of interest is found, a searcher can browse not only the information in NLM biomedical literature and data resources but also related information at other on-line sources, such as EPA, NIOSH, ATSDR, NIST, and WHO/IARC. The system has recently been redesigned to: 1) take advantage of up-to-date technologies such as Java Server Pages and Oracle data cartridges 2) present a more streamlined user interface and 3) include additional compound data. Further enhancements will also be discussed.