Chemical Entities of Biological Interest, also known as ChEBI, is a database and ontology of molecular entities

Molecular entity

According to the IUPAC Gold Book a molecular entity is "any constitutionally or isotopically distinct atom, molecule, ion, ion pair, radical, radical ion, complex, conformer, etc., identifiable as a separately distinguishable entity"....

 focused on 'small' chemical compounds, that is part of the Open Biomedical Ontologies

Open Biomedical Ontologies

Open Biomedical Ontologies is an effort to create controlled vocabularies for shared use across different biological and medical domains. As of 2006, OBO forms part of the resources of the U.S...

 effort. The term "molecular entity" refers to any "constitutionally or isotopically distinct atom

Atom

The atom is a basic unit of matter that consists of a dense central nucleus surrounded by a cloud of negatively charged electrons. The atomic nucleus contains a mix of positively charged protons and electrically neutral neutrons...

, molecule

Molecule

A molecule is an electrically neutral group of at least two atoms held together by covalent chemical bonds. Molecules are distinguished from ions by their electrical charge...

, ion

Ion

An ion is an atom or molecule in which the total number of electrons is not equal to the total number of protons, giving it a net positive or negative electrical charge. The name was given by physicist Michael Faraday for the substances that allow a current to pass between electrodes in a...

, ion pair, radical

Radical (chemistry)

Radicals are atoms, molecules, or ions with unpaired electrons on an open shell configuration. Free radicals may have positive, negative, or zero charge...

, radical ion

Radical ion

A radical ion is a free radical species that carries a charge. Radical ions are encountered in organic chemistry as reactive intermediates and in mass spectrometry as gas phase ions...

, complex

Complex (chemistry)

In chemistry, a coordination complex or metal complex, is an atom or ion , bonded to a surrounding array of molecules or anions, that are in turn known as ligands or complexing agents...

, conformer, etc., identifiable as a separately distinguishable entity". The molecular entities in question are either products of nature or synthetic products used to intervene in the processes of living organisms. Molecules directly encoded by the genome, such as nucleic acids, proteins and peptides derived from proteins by proteolytic cleavage, are not as a rule included in ChEBI.

ChEBI uses nomenclature

IUPAC nomenclature

A chemical nomenclature is a set of rules to generate systematic names for chemical compounds. The nomenclature used most frequently worldwide is the one created and developed by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry ....

, symbolism and terminology endorsed by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and Nomenclature Committee of the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology is an international non-governmental organisation concerned with biochemistry and molecular biology...

(NC-IUBMB).

Scope and Access

All data in the database is non-proprietary or is derived from a non-proprietary source. It is thus freely accessible and available to anyone. In addition, each data item is fully traceable and explicitly referenced to the original source.

The ChEBI data is available through a public web interface, Web Service and downloads.

External links

• http://www.ebi.ac.uk/chebi/
• ftp://ftp.ebi.ac.uk/pub/databases/chebi/