About Us

Our Data Sources: Where CompoundLookup Data Comes From

Learn about PubChem, our primary data source, and how we ensure accuracy in our compound database.

3 min read|Updated January 28, 2026

Data You Can Trust

CompoundLookup is built on data from the most authoritative chemistry database in the world: PubChem.

About PubChem

PubChem is maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It contains:

  • 115+ million unique chemical structures
  • 850+ contributing data sources
  • Daily updates with new compounds
  • Free access for everyone worldwide

How We Use PubChem Data

We extract and index the following information: - Molecular formulas - IUPAC systematic names - Common/traditional names - Molecular weights - PubChem Compound IDs (CIDs)

Our Unique Processing

What makes CompoundLookup special is how we process this data:

  1. Element Parsing - We analyze each formula to identify constituent elements
  2. Indexing - We create searchable indexes by element combination
  3. Organization - We group compounds by their element sets

This processing enables our unique element-based search—something PubChem itself doesn't offer.

Data Freshness

We periodically update our database with new compounds from PubChem. The chemistry world is constantly discovering new compounds, and we work to keep our database current.

Accuracy Notes

  • All data originates from PubChem, an authoritative source
  • For critical applications, always verify with primary sources
  • Click "Details" on any compound to view the full PubChem entry

How to Cite

If using CompoundLookup data in academic work, cite PubChem as the original source and mention CompoundLookup as the discovery tool.

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