NPDBEjeCol: A Natural Products Database from Colombia

Area of Science:

• Natural Product Chemistry
• Cheminformatics
• Pharmacognosy

Background:

• Colombia possesses rich biodiversity with potential for novel natural products.
• Existing natural product databases may lack comprehensive data from specific regions like Colombia's coffee region.
• Publicly accessible databases are crucial for research and drug discovery.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce the Natural Products DataBase EjeCol (NPDBEjeCol), the first curated natural product database from Colombia.
• To make this database publicly available online for researchers.
• To analyze the structural diversity and drug-like properties of Colombian natural products.

Main Methods:

• Compilation of natural products from peer-reviewed literature specific to Colombia's coffee region.
• Data standardization, curation, and calculation of molecular descriptors and fingerprints.
• Comparative analysis of NPDBEjeCol's chemical space against reference libraries.

Main Results:

• NPDBEjeCol is now publicly available at www.npdbejecol.com, containing 236 molecules.
• Compounds exhibit drug-like properties, generally adhering to Lipinski's rule.
• Terpenes, particularly monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes, are the most abundant phytochemical group.

Conclusions:

• NPDBEjeCol represents a significant contribution to the study of Colombian natural products.
• The database facilitates open access, query, and visualization of natural product data.
• This resource can accelerate research in drug discovery and chemical biology.