NAPRABASE an Open Analytical Database for Natural Products

The groundwork for a comprehensive database containing analytical data of natural products, termed NAPRABASE, has been laid and a version of the database will be presented. NAPRABASE enables storage and search of spectroscopic data that is most valuable to natural products research, in particular NMR and MS data, in both raw and processed format. NAPRABASE uses a web interface to an SQL database, and employs free and open software (Linux, Apache, Pylons, Python, PostgreSQL) and open data format standards (JCAMP, CML) to ensure data longevity. The long-term goal of NAPRABASE is to solve problems that stem from printed publication of research results: accessibility and availability problems, and difficulties directly associated with analyzing and matching data (e.g. meaning of multiplets in NMR). NAPRABASE takes advantage of the power of digitized analytical data to assist researchers in the computational analysis of natural products. Input from the international scientific community of pharmacognosy is essential to the success of this open project. Therefore, this presentation also explains what type of data is needed that every researcher can potentially contribute, to encourage future submission of various analytical data – in particular NMR – to NAPRABASE.