Indexing for Chemicals and Drugs

Searching PubMed | Table of Contents | Pharmacological Action Terms

• The D branch of the MeSH vocabulary tree is for Chemicals and Drugs.
• Frequently, chemicals that are not currently MeSH headings need to be used for indexing. To enhance coverage of chemicals, Supplementary Concept Records (SCR) are available.
• Every SCR is mapped to a MeSH heading which is automatically added to the citation when an indexer chooses an SCR to describe an article. These mapped terms can be found in the MeSH Database:

• Drugs and chemicals may also be searched in the MeSH database using their Registry Numbers or Enzyme Commission numbers.

Note: Not all records for chemicals in the MeSH database have registry number data, so retrieval may be incomplete.   If a search using a registry number is unsuccessful, search on the substance name instead. Classes or groups of drugs or chemicals, e.g., benzenes, are not assigned specific Registry Numbers.

Searching PubMed | Table of Contents | Pharmacological Action Terms