50 millionth unique chemical substance recorded in CAS Registry

Washington, September 11 (ANI): Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) has announced that it has recorded the 50 millionth unique chemical substance in its registry, which is the world's most comprehensive and high-quality compendium of publicly disclosed chemical information.

The recently registered substance is a novel arylmethylidene heterocycle with analgesic properties.

Reaching the 50 million mark so quickly is an indicator of the accelerating pace of scientific knowledge.

CAS registered the 40 millionth substance just nine months ago. In contrast, it took 33 years for CAS to register the 10 millionth compound in 1990.

Information professionals and scientists around the world have taken note of this important milestone.

"Achieving a milestone of 50 million small molecules registered, which I congratulate CAS for, has given us two major insights; one is that a novel substance is either isolated or synthesized every 2.6 seconds on the average during the past 12 months, day and night, seven days a week in the world, showing an almost unbelievable rate of progress in science," said Dr. Hideaki Chihara, chemist and former president of Japan Association for International Chemical Information.

The 50 millionth substance (CAS Registry Number 1181081-51-5) was uncovered by CAS scientists from the Examples section of a nearly 200-page patent issued by the World Intellectual Property Organization on August 13, 2009.

According to the patent, "Few therapeutics are approved by the US Food and Drug Administration and other regulatory agencies for the treatment of neuropathic pain."

To address this concern, a series of novel arylmethylidene heterocycles were synthesized, which included the most recent substance registered by CAS.

"The 50 million substances in CAS REGISTRY have the potential to enable new discoveries in every field of scientific study, from cancer research to the development of new consumer goods, the creation of more effective drugs, or the discovery of faster and smaller computer processors," said Dr. Matthew Toussant, senior vice president of editorial operations at CAS. (ANI)