A Database for Chemical Names of Medicinal Materials in the Literature

Background: In the field of traditional medicine, there has been a great deal of research on the effects exhibited by medicinal material components and their mechanisms of action. However, since there are no systematic resources of components of medicinal materials, effort to investigate these components on a study-by-study basis is required. Several medicine databases have already been built using classical literature and published books. However, each database provides different information, and the origin of each chemical compound is not clearly stated. The aim of this study was to systematically construct a database of medicinal material components based on articles listed in PubMed Central. Description: Journal articles listed in PubMed Central were searched for sentences containing the names of 799 medicines as well as the names of compounds in the PubChem Substance database; those relating to minerals and animals were excluded. After confirmation that the compound names mentioned were medicinal material components, a compilation of information for 676 compounds was built for 154 different medicines. The database also provides a clear indication of the source articles from which each material component was derived. Conclusions: A medicinal compound database clearly referencing and integrating different sources was constructed. The results of this study, though directly constructed, will serve as a foundation for people to conduct research with automated annotations for medicinal compound names. This database of information on medicinal compounds also enables the discovery of new knowledge contained in the classic literature of traditional medicine and the scientific evidence of modern medicine.