The InChI Code

摘要

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry has developed a computer algorithmic scheme for unambiguously coding molecular structure into relatively short alphabetic tags. These are now ubiquitous in many descriptions of molecular structure, yet the ease with which they are recognized and used is suppressed by their opaqueness even to the chemically knowledgeable reader. We present a short description of the structure, utility, advantages, and disadvantages of the code to ease familiarization.