MedPhyt – Technical Details
Organisation
of the Database:
Table 1. Organisational
diagram of the database
|
Botany |
History |
Bio-/Chemistry |
Toxicology |
Pharmacology |
|
botanical
plant name |
botanical plant name |
botanical plant name |
botanical plant name |
botanical plant name |
|
systematics |
entymology/ synonyms |
basic chemical data |
potential hazard |
main compounds |
|
description / characteristics |
brief
description (discovery,
application) |
compounds |
main compounds |
therapeutic effect |
|
distribution (text and geographic map) |
literature |
metabolism |
lethal dosage |
mechanisms |
|
location |
|
chemical structures |
clinical symptoms |
pharmacokinetics |
|
another species |
|
literature |
autopsy report |
literature |
|
chemical compounds (brief representation) |
|
|
toxic statistic |
drugInfo (industrial application) |
|
brief comments (e,g. important advice on toxic effects) |
|
|
literature |
production |
|
literature |
|
|
|
kind of offering |
|
images (photos and illustrations) |
|
|
|
indication |
|
|
|
|
|
side-effect |
|
|
|
|
|
dosage |
|
|
|
|
|
contraindication |
|
|
|
|
|
alternative drugs |
|
|
|
|
|
trade name |
|
|
|
|
|
visualisation (mechanism, drug-target-interaction, etc.) |
Tab. 1 continued
For example, tables of the botany area contain data about the plant systematics (the position of a species within the plant world), descriptions and geographic distribution as well as brief comments on their pharmaceutical and toxicological meaning for therapeutic use. Photos and coloured drawings help to identify the text-described plant species. The database area bio/chemistry provides information about the chemical properties of the main compounds, representations of chemical structures in two- and three-dimensional ways as well as descriptions and schematic drawings of the branch of the plant metabolism in which these compounds are synthesised. The area pharmacology contains tables with data about the molecular and cellular mechanism of drug effect, data about the pharmacokinetic properties of the plant drug and data about the use of this drug in commercial products.
Additionally, for comprehensive insights into the drug-targeting and the physiological effects of the drug on the cellular metabolism short movies, interactive animations and other kinds of visualisation will be implemented.
Further extensions of MedPhyt will be undertaken in following developmental steps:
- visualisation of drug effects which are based on techniques and data from cheminformatics and bioinformatics
- excerption of medical and toxic plants from other parts of the world
- excerption of microbiological (i.e. fungi and bacteria) drugs
- excerption of animal drugs
The focus of MedPhyt in respect to potential users is not restricted on a special group. The content of the database shall be of interest for home users, doctors, scientists and teaching as well. By using different weights for the queries, users can personalize MedPhyt to their own requirements (Table 2).
Table
2 Potential user groups of MedPhyt
|
„Home-User“ |
Doctors/Pharmacists |
Research: Pharmacologists,
Biologists, Chemists, Medics |
Teaching (university and school):
Students and Teachers |
|
- common
reference work |
- common
reference work |
- common
reference work |
- common
reference work |
|
·
botanical interest ·
botanical guide ·
additional to the instruction leaflet to phytopharmaca ·
tox. relevance: diagnosis, first aid,
·
histological data |
·
additional to the instruction leaflet to phytopharmaca ·
documentation for e.g. teas, oils,... ·
effects ·
contraindications ·
side effects ·
personal training |
·
drug-targeting ·
target research ·
drug-simulation ·
simulation of synthetic components in metabolic paths ·
parameterisation of targets and drugs ·
cell modelling ·
(new-) development of high specific phytopharmaca |
·
application in: phytochemistry, ethnopharmacology, physiology,
biochemistry and organic chemistry, molecular biology and biotechnology ·
representation of cellular toxication/detoxication
for example ·
botanical guide |
From the technical point of view, MedPhyt is an n-tier component distributed database system. The system consists of three main layers the presentation layer, the logic layer and the database layer. The presentation layer provides the administration of the user interface and the user interaction and uses common technologies like JSP and Java Servlets. Data will be exchanged via HTML and XML data formats. On the basis of this layer the user authentication is organized which is based on the authentication mechanism of the Apache web server. The logic layer administrates request sessions; data from the database is analysed and issued to the user. One important task is the interpretation of chemical structures which will be plotted two- or three-dimensional using a browser plug-in (i.e., Chime or ACDfree). The database layer accesses the (relational) database. In addition to this fundamental functionality the web interface should adapt itself on different devices which mean that the web interface is simpler on a slow PC and more extensive on fast ones.