SuperTCM: A biocultural database combining biological pathways and historical linguistic data of Chinese Materia Medica for drug development

Botanicals used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) are a rich source for drug discovery and provide models for multi-component drug development. To facilitate the studies of the actions of TCM drugs and expand their applications, a comprehensive database is urgently required. One online resource connects all the relevant data from multiple scientific sources and languages. Drug information from published TCM databases and the official Chinese Pharmacopoeia as well as specialized meta-websites such as Kew's Medicinal Plant Names Service was integrated on a higher level. Our database, SuperTCM, covers the aspects of TCM derived from medicinal plants, encompassing pharmacological recipes up to chemical compounds. It provides the information for 6516 TCM drugs (or "herbs") with 5372 botanical species, 55,772 active ingredients against 543 targets in 254 KEGG pathways associated with 8634 diseases. SuperTCM is freely available at http://tcm.charite.de/supertcm.