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SPPS 221: Pharmaceutical Chemistry: SciFinder-n and Reaxys

Information resources for pharmaceutical chemistry

Connecting to SciFinder-n and Reaxys

SciFinder requires a one-time registration. To register, start here. (VPN must be enabled to access the registration page.)

To connect to SciFindern, login with your username and password at http://scifinder-n.cas.org/

  • If you already have a UCSD SciFinder account, you can use that login to SciFindern. SciFindern is the new interface for SciFinder, but the content is the same.

Reaxys does not require that you create a login, unless you want to set up search alerts. However, for both databases you need to be on the campus network (or the UCSD-Protected wifi), or off campus using VPN to access these.

Using Reaxys for Your Assignment

To search Reaxys by substance:

  • Enter your compound name in the search box. Results will break out as substances, reactions, documents, and/or commercial sources.
  • View the results for Substances. [image]
  • Click Physical Data for your compound. Available properties will be listed in alphabetical order after boiling points, melting points, and density. [image]
    • Optical rotation data will be under Optical Rotary Power. LogP data will be under Partition octan-1-ol water (MCS).
  • Each data point will have one or more associated references. click the Full Text link to get to UC-eLinks for the article.
    • If the reference is for a journal article, the journal will be in bold. If the reference doesn't have a journal name, but an alphanumeric string like CN106632267, WO2014/60900, or US2010/56784, these are patents rather than journal articles.

To search Reaxys for preparations:

  • Go back to the top of the substance record.
  • Click preparations over to the right to see reactions where your compound was synthesized. [image]
  • For each reaction, you'll get 1-3 conditions, including reaction details, possibly a summarized experimental procedure, and a reference and link back to the article or patent where this reaction was reported. [image]
    • Reaxys displays the first 3 conditions by default. Click + Show All Conditions to see the rest.
    • You can reduce the number of patent records by limiting document type to exclude patents. 

Using SciFinder-n for Your Assignment

To search SciFindern by substance:

  • Enter your compound in the search bar, which should be set on Substances. [image]
  • Click on the substance's CAS Registry Number (3 sets of numbers, separated by hyphens) to bring up the Substance Detail record.
  • Scroll down to Experimental Properties. Look for LogP under the Chemical tab, and Optical Rotation under the Optical and Scattering tab, if available. [image]
  • If the value is "Full Text", click the associated reference to bring up the record..
  • To get to the article text from SciFindern, click on the Full Text menu under the abstract and select the UC-eLinks option (though DOI will also work in most cases). [image]

To find an article on preparation:

  • Return to the Substance Detail record, and click the Reactions button above the structure. [image]
  • Then limit the results:
    • Substance role: select Product
    • Document type: select Journal
    • Language: select English. 
  • The results are grouped by scheme, but you can change it to group by document. Each reaction will have an associated article, with the same Full Text button to access.

To find an article on mechanism of action (option 1):

  • Return to the Substance Detail record, and click the References button above the structure. [image]
  • Scroll down to the last filter option: Search Within Results. Enter mechanism of action and run the search again. Limit to English-language articles if needed. 
  • The articles will sort by relevancy, but you can change to see the oldest or newest articles first.

To find an article on mechanism of action (option 2):

  • Return to the SciFindern homepage.
  • Change the search from Substances to References, enter mechanism of action and your compound and run the search. [image]
    • Alternative search: Mechanism of action for your compound may give you a larger, initial set of results, but expanding to Load More Results will likely give you the same total either way. [image]