Centre for Molecular and Biomolecular Informatics Radboud University Nijmegen

Fast Access to High-Quality Chemical Data

When it comes to chemical databases, scientists look for comprehensive detail, fast search speeds, and high-quality data. CrossFire Beilstein offers all three. Its chronological index, renowned for its careful approach to data quality, begins in 1771 and comprises (data about the current version can be found elsewhere):

• About 9.8 million compounds, increasing by approx. 300,000 each year
• Over 10 million chemical reactions
• Over 2 million references to the primary organic chemical literature
• Over 900,000 abstracts and titles indexed from the primary organic chemical literature (over 180 journals) since 1980
• Over 350 different types of data, all with complete literature references, dating from 1771 to the present

CrossFire Beilstein indexes three primary types of data. The substance domain stores structural information with all associated facts and literature references, including chemical and physical properties and bioactivity data. The reaction domain details the preparation of substances; with reaction search queries, scientists can investigate specific reaction pathways. Chemical literature citations, titles, and abstracts, which are hyperlinked to substance and reaction domain entries, are stored within the citation domain.

Substances, reactions, and citations are related in obvious ways, and the powerful CrossFire search engine makes it easy for scientists to explore these interconnections. Scientists can retrieve information on complex chemical preparations by combining structure, substructure, reaction, property, and keyword searches into sophisticated queries. CrossFire routinely returns search results across the entire database in mere seconds. From there, scientists can use any of the more than 50 million hyperlinks to jump from one type of data to another. From a substructure query, for example, scientists can easily view bioactive compounds highlighted within the structure window and then jump to the reactions that created those structures. Another click lets them navigate to the titles and abstracts where these reactions were described. Integration of CrossFire Beilstein with the LitLink product suite can further empower scientists by enabling them to retrieve the journal article itself directly to their desktops. CrossFire Beilstein's unparalleled flexibility frees scientists to explore the chemical space, helping them to draw better conclusions from the data.

Substances: More than eight million structures and their associated chemical and physical properties, preparative methods, and chemical behavior. All these reactions and other data are provided with literature references which are directly accessed through hyperlinks.		A substructure search in the CrossFire Beilstein database, featuring generic atoms and groups.
		Query Hit(s)
Reactions: The structure search system includes reaction sub-structure searching: you can define the role of a structure or sub-structure in the reaction, and search using reaction attributes such as reaction centers, bond fate, and atom-atom mapping.		A reaction substructure search, illustrating reaction centers and atom-atom mapping.
		Query Hit(s)
Citations: This separate domain facilitates citation searching and a citation-oriented display. All substances and reactions from a citation can be reached through hyperlinks. Abstracts and titles, key components of the citations domain, are available for all documents excerpted from 1980 to the present.		Text searches in abstracts or titles, a useful feature of the citation domain.
		Query Hit(s)