European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), part of the Open Biomedical Ontologies (OBO) Foundry
identifier format
CHEBI:<integer> (e.g., CHEBI:15422 for ATP, CHEBI:15365 for aspirin)
license
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
introduced
2004
Core Principles & Analysis
Developed at the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) as part of the Open Biomedical Ontologies (OBO) effort, ChEBI provides a manually curated dictionary and hierarchical ontology of small molecular entities involved in biological processes.
ChEBI enforces chemical nomenclature and structural symbolism endorsed by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and the NC-IUBMB, deliberately excluding genome-encoded macromolecules such as intact proteins and nucleic acids.
Its three-branch ontology classifies every small molecule simultaneously by chemical structure (sub-structural hierarchy), biological role (e.g., hormone, neurotransmitter, enzyme inhibitor), and application (e.g., analgesic, pesticide).