List of Databases
A. Core olfaction, odorant and olfactory-receptor databases
| # | Database | What it contains / principal olfaction use case | Citation / evidence | Working web resource |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | OlfactionBase | Integrated odor → odorant → olfactory receptor (OR) resource. Contains odors/sub-odors, odorants, odorless compounds, human/mouse ORs, OR–odorant interactions, OBPs/PBPs/chemosensory proteins. Excellent starting point for an olfaction knowledge graph. | Sharma A, Saha BK, Kumar R, Varadwaj PK. Nucleic Acids Res. 2022;50:D678–D686. DOI 10.1093/nar/gkab763. (PubMed Central (PMC)) | OlfactionBase |
| 2 | M2OR – Molecule to Olfactory Receptor | Currently one of the strongest resources for experimentally tested molecule–OR relationships. Includes responsive and non-responsive pairs, concentrations, assays, receptor sequences and stereochemistry. Particularly valuable for ML/AI models predicting OR activation. | Lalis M et al. Nucleic Acids Res. 2024;52:D1370–D1379. DOI 10.1093/nar/gkad886. (OUP Academic) | M2OR |
| 3 | ORDB – Olfactory Receptor Database | OR genes/proteins and broader chemosensory receptors across organisms. Useful for OR sequences, genomic/proteomic annotation and comparative chemosensory biology. | Crasto C et al. Nucleic Acids Res. 2002;30:354–360; ORDB site remains indexed and accessible. (ordb.biotech.ttu.edu) | ORDB |
| 4 | HORDE – Human Olfactory Data Explorer | Human OR repertoire including genes, pseudogenes, genomic variation, orthologs and sequence downloads. Best suited to human OR genomics, evolution, SNP/CNV studies and sequence analysis. | Olender T et al.; HORDE described as comprehensive OR genomics resource. (PubMed) | HORDE |
| 5 | ODORactor | Historical OR–odorant resource plus computational prediction of candidate receptors for odorants. Useful particularly when studying the development of odorant→OR prediction methods. | Liu X et al. Bioinformatics. 2011;27:2302–2303. (OUP Academic) | Current functionality should be treated cautiously; the publication/resource record is ODORactor publication |
| 6 | Pyrfume | A very useful modern aggregation framework for olfactory datasets. Brings multiple academic and commercial/open odor datasets into standardized formats and provides Python/R access. Excellent for ML training and benchmarking. | Hamel EA et al. Pyrfume: A window to the world’s olfactory data (2024). (PubMed Central (PMC)) | Pyrfume resource and data description |
| 7 | DREAM Olfaction Prediction Dataset | Human psychophysical ratings linked to molecular descriptors. Extremely useful for molecular structure → perceived odor prediction and benchmarking ML algorithms. | Keller/Vosshall/Meyer DREAM Olfaction Prediction Challenge. (dream-olfaction.github.io) | DREAM Olfaction Challenge |
| 8 | Flavornet | Classic database of odor-active volatile compounds, GC retention indices and odor descriptors. Particularly valuable for GC-O/GC-MS odorant identification. | Arn H, Acree TE. Flavornet: A database of aroma compounds based on odor potency in natural products. 1998. (ScienceDirect) | Flavornet resource information |
| 9 | The Good Scents Company Information System (TGSC) | Very large practical fragrance/flavor information source: odor descriptions, flavor descriptors, synonyms and material information. Excellent for odor-descriptor vocabularies and fragrance informatics. | Frequently used as an olfactory-perception resource; recent reviews continue to list it as available. (DOI) | Good Scents odor descriptor database |
| 10 | FlavorDB / FlavorDB2 | ~25,595 flavor molecules with odor/taste profiles, natural sources, molecular structures and physicochemical features. Useful for food aroma, molecular similarity, flavor pairing and odor prediction ML. | Garg N et al. Nucleic Acids Res. 2018. (cosylab.iiitd.edu.in) | FlavorDB2 |
B. VOC, aroma, fragrance, food and natural-product databases
| # | Database | Olfaction use case | Citation / evidence | Verified resource |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | mVOC 4.0 | Microbial volatile organic compounds from bacteria/fungi; useful for microbial odor signatures, pathogen detection, fermentation, microbiome VOCs and electronic-nose applications. | Kemmler E et al. Nucleic Acids Res. 2025;53:D1692–D1696. DOI 10.1093/nar/gkae961. (PubMed Central (PMC)) | mVOC 4.0 |
| 12 | AromaDb | Aroma molecules from medicinal/aromatic plants; essential oils, chemotypes, GC/MS, structures, physicochemical and therapeutic information. Useful for plant VOC/e-nose/aroma studies. | Kumar Y et al. Front Plant Sci. 2018;9:1081. (PubMed Central (PMC)) | AromaDb |
| 13 | VCF – Volatile Compounds in Food | Extensive food-VOC occurrence database with literature references. Excellent for food aroma, GC-MS identification, food authentication and sensor target selection. | VCF Online currently exposes extensive compound/category listings. (Vcf Online) | VCF Online |
| 14 | The Pherobase | >28,000 semiochemicals and >185,000 compounds, with pheromones, floral compounds, essential oils, food compounds, retention indices and spectra. Useful for chemical ecology and biosensor/e-nose studies. (Pherobase) | El-Sayed AM. The Pherobase: Database of Pheromones and Semiochemicals, 2026. | The Pherobase |
| 15 | FEMA Flavor Ingredient Library | Flavor ingredients with FEMA GRAS status, identity, safety information and JECFA cross-references. Important for translational food/flavor olfaction and regulatory work. (FEMA Flavor) | FEMA Flavor Ingredient Library | FEMA Flavor Ingredient Library |
| 16 | EU Food Flavourings Database | EU-authorized flavoring substances and conditions of use. Useful when an odorant/flavor molecule moves toward food-product/regulatory application. (Food Safety) | European Commission | EU Food Flavourings Database |
| 17 | eFLAVIS | European flavouring information system; useful for FL numbers, regulatory identity and flavouring evaluation. | EFSA system is currently online. (eFLAVIS) | eFLAVIS |
| 18 | JECFA Flavouring Specifications Database | Specifications for evaluated flavoring substances searchable by name, CAS, FEMA and JECFA number. Useful for odorant identity/quality/regulatory validation. (FAOHome) | FAO/WHO JECFA | JECFA Flavouring Specifications |
| 19 | JECFA Evaluations Database | Toxicological/safety evaluations, ADI/TDI, reports and monographs for flavors and additives. Useful for safety assessment of candidate odorants. (WHO Apps) | WHO | JECFA Evaluation Database |
| 20 | Flavor-Base / Leffingwell | Large commercial/reference collection of flavor and perfumery materials; useful for odor descriptors, thresholds, fragrance chemistry and formulation research. | Recent systematic reviews still identify it as an active odor data source. (PubMed Central (PMC)) | Leffingwell Flavor-Base |
| 21 | LOTUS | Open natural-product occurrence database. Useful for determining natural biological sources of odorants/VOCs, plant–compound links and chemical ecology. | Rutz A et al. eLife. 2022;11:e70780. (Lotus Natural Products) | LOTUS Natural Products Online |
| 22 | COCONUT 2.0 | Large open natural-product structure collection. Useful for odorant candidate mining, molecular similarity and natural-product chemical space. | Chandrasekhar V et al. Nucleic Acids Res. 2024/25; COCONUT 2.0. (config(‘app.name’, ‘COCONUT’)) | COCONUT |
| 23 | BitterDB | Primarily taste rather than smell, but valuable for multimodal chemosensory research, flavor perception and bitter receptor–ligand comparison with OR biology. | Ziaikin E et al. Nucleic Acids Res. 2024 update; earlier Wiener et al. 2012. (AERC) | BitterDB |
| 24 | SuperSweet | Sweet molecules/proteins, structures and receptor modelling. Secondary relevance for integrated flavor perception/chemosensory modelling. | Ahmed J et al. Nucleic Acids Res. 2011. (PubMed Central (PMC)) | SuperSweet publication/resource description |
C. Chemical and molecular databases essential for olfaction informatics
These are not olfaction-specific, but they are indispensable when building a serious odorant data platform.
| # | Database | Why it matters for olfaction | Citation / evidence | Verified resource |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 | PubChem | Canonical chemical identity layer: CID, SMILES, InChI/InChIKey, structures, properties, bioassays, toxicity and literature. Essential for normalizing odorant molecules across databases. | Kim S et al. Nucleic Acids Res. 2025;53:D1516–D1525. (PubChem) | PubChem |
| 26 | ChEBI | Curated chemical entities plus ontology. Particularly valuable for an olfaction semantic layer/knowledge graph: chemical classes, roles and standardized identifiers. | Malik A et al. Nucleic Acids Res. 2025. (EMBL-EBI) | ChEBI 2.0 |
| 27 | NIST Chemistry WebBook | Mass spectra, IR spectra, GC retention data, vapor pressure, thermochemical/physical properties. Extremely useful for GC-MS VOC identification and sensor engineering. (NIST WebBook) | NIST SRD 69 | NIST Chemistry WebBook |
| 28 | EPA CompTox Chemicals Dashboard | Physicochemical properties, exposure, hazard, environmental fate and bioactivity. Important for environmental odors, industrial VOCs and odorant safety. (US EPA) | US EPA | CompTox Chemicals Dashboard |
| 29 | T3DB / Toxic Exposome Database | Toxins, pollutants, targets and mechanisms. Useful for malodorous/toxic VOCs, environmental odor exposure and safety assessment. | Wishart DS et al. Nucleic Acids Res. 2015;43:D928–D934. (T3DB) | T3DB |
| 30 | Exposome-Explorer | Curated exposure biomarkers covering environmental and dietary exposures. Useful for breath VOC/exposomics and biomarker interpretation. | Neveu V et al. Nucleic Acids Res. 2017;45:D979–D984; updated releases. (Exposome Explorer) | Exposome-Explorer |
D. Human VOCs, metabolomics and disease-odor research
This group becomes especially important for breathomics, disease VOC biomarkers, cancer VOCs, microbiome odor signatures and electronic noses for diagnosis.
| # | Database | Olfaction/VOC use case | Citation/evidence | Verified resource |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 | HMDB – Human Metabolome Database | Human metabolites, biofluid concentrations, disease associations, GC-MS/MS/NMR spectra and biochemical pathways. Essential for connecting human VOC → metabolite → biofluid → disease. | Wishart DS et al. Nucleic Acids Res. 2007 and subsequent HMDB releases. | |