title: Review of natural product databases.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Many natural products have pharmacological or biological activities that can be of therapeutic benefit in treating diseases, and are also an important source of inspiration for development of potential novel drugs. The past few decades have witnessed extensive study of natural products for their promising prospects in application of medicinal chemistry, molecular biology and pharmaceutical sciences.
  
  
  METHODS
  Natural product databases have provided systematic collection of information concerning natural products and their derivatives, including structure, source and mechanisms of action, which significantly support modern drug discovery.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Currently, a considerable number of natural product databases, such as TCM Database@Taiwan, TCMID, CEMTDD, SuperToxic and SuperNatural, have been developed, providing data such as integrated medicinal herbs, ingredients, 2D/3D structures of the compounds, related target proteins, relevant diseases, and metabolic toxicity and more.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We focus on an analytical overview of current natural product databases, and further discuss the good, bad or imperfection of current ones, in the hope of better integrating existing relevant outcomes, thus providing new routes for future drug discovery.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy/Collaborative Innovation Center of Biotherapy, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, China.
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy/Collaborative Innovation Center of Biotherapy, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, China.
authors.forename: Sicheng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Stomatology, West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, China.
authors.forename: Sijia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy/Collaborative Innovation Center of Biotherapy, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, China.
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ouyang
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, China.
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.affiliation: School of Traditional Chinese Materia Medica, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang, 110016, China.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001688:Biological Products / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000633:toxicity; D016208:Databases, Factual; D055808:Drug Discovery / Q000379:methods; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000633:toxicity; D006801:Humans
chemical_list: D001688:Biological Products; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal