Introduction to the JChem suite

Short Description

JChem is a suite of integrated programs and toolkits for many cheminformatics tasks. Its components include chemical database engines, chemical structure editor and visualization tools, physicochemical property predictors and other tools for chemical structure manipulation. Most components come with intuitive graphical user interface and all are accessible through Java and .NET API (Application Programming Interface) and command-line(batch) tools.

As the JChem suite was developed in Java, it is available on major platforms and the components are ideal for intra- and internet applications and web-based delivery. (Through the use of Java applets or Java Web Start.) The distribution contains numerous web and standalone application examples.

What is new in version 5.1?

  • Position variation in queries and Markush structures
  • New architecture for tautomer duplicate handling. Allowing more correct and faster operation.
  • New search options in JChem Base

Detailed release notes


Modules of the JChem suite

JChem comprises the following modules:
JChem Base
adds a chemical interface to relational database engines, which can be applied for combined SQL and chemical structure queries;
imports/exports molecules, reactions, query and Markush structures in standard formats (Molfile, SD file, RD file, SMILES, SMARTS, CML, etc.). It is integrated with physico-chemical calculations(calculated columns) and Standardizer for structure canonicalization. Many different RDBMS engines are supported.
JChem Cartridge
adds chemical operators and JChem indexes to the Oracle SQL language. Can handle structure tables of JChem Base and other free-form tables containing chemical structure data. Also provides interface to other JChem modules (calculations, standardization, molecule enumeration, format conversions, etc).
Standardizer transforms chemical structures based on a configuration. It is useful for canonicalization of molecules from different formats into standard representation.
Reactor generates reaction products from reaction equations and reactants.
JKlustor clusters molecular libraries by a novel maximum common substructure(MCS) based algorithm or by using molecular descriptors with Jarvis-Patrick or Ward algorithms. Also suitable for diversity calculations.
Screen performs similarity screening based on different descriptors, like pharmacophore or chemical fingerprints, BCUT, etc.
Fragmenter decomposes structures based on a scaffold (R-group decomposition) or generates building blocks based on cleavage rules from molecule libraries.
Chemical Terms Evaluator evaluates chemical expressions and conditions. Integrated with the calculators and JChem Base (through calculated columns and Chemical Terms search filter).
The JChem suite also contains the full Marvin suite:
MarvinSketch is a 2D/3D chemical structure editor for drawing molecules, queries, reactions and Markush structures. It is integrated with the calculator plugins, MarvinView and MarvinSpace.
MarvinView is a 2D/3D chemical viewer for single and multiple chemical structures, queries and reactions. It is integrated with the calculator plugins, MarvinSketch and MarvinSpace.
MarvinSpace is a high performance 3D molecule visualization tool.
Calculator plugins are ChemAxons range of structure based prediction tools. They are integrated with MarvinSketch and MarvinView, JChem Base (calculated columns and Chemical Terms filter search) and Reactor (reaction rules).
Molconvert application is a command line program that converts between various chemical file types.

Notes

  1. Although the modules are shipped together and are tightly integrated, they are licensed separately. See more details here.
  2. Instant JChem, our desktop chemical database application, is not part of the JChem suite, although it relies on many JChem components.
The following diagram shows which ChemAxon products are included in the JChem suite from the ChemAxon product line.

model

Documentation

The following links provide the starting points to documentation:

Papers

See our recent papers, which discuss the features and applications of our products.

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