Computer-assisted organic synthesis software is a type of application software used in organic chemistry in tandem with computational chemistry to help facilitate the tasks of designing, predicting, and producing chemical reactions. CAOS aims to identify a series of chemical reactions which, from a starting compound, can produce a desired molecule. CAOS algorithms typically use two databases: a first one of known chemical reactions and a second one of known starting materials (i.e., typically molecules available commercially). Desirable synthetic plans cost less, have high yield, and avoid using hazardous reactions and intermediates. Typically cast as a planning problem, significant progress has been made in CAOS.
CAOS programs
- Manifold â Compound searching and retrosynthesis planning tool freely accessible to academic users, developed by PostEra
- WODCA â no trial version; proprietary software
- Organic Synthesis Exploration Tool (OSET) â open-source software, abandoned
- CHIRON â no trial version; proprietary software
- SynGen â demo version; proprietary software; a unique program for automatic organic synthesis generation; focuses on generating the shortest, lowest cost synthetic routes for a given target organic compound, and is thus a useful tool for synthesis planning
- LHASA â demo available but not linked (?); proprietary software
- SYLVIA â demo version; proprietary software; rapidly evaluates the ease of synthesis of organic compounds; can prioritize thousands of structures (e.g., generated by de novo design experiments or retrieved from large virtual compound libraries) according to their synthetic complexity
- ChemPlanner (formerly ARChem â Route Designer) - is an expert system to help chemists design viable synthetic routes for their target molecules; the knowledge base of reaction rules is algorithmically derived from reaction databases, and commercially available starting materials are used as termination points for the retrosynthetic search
- ICSYNTH â demo available; proprietary software; A computer aided synthesis design tool that enables chemists to generate synthetic pathways for a target molecule, and a multistep interactive synthesis tree; at its core is an algorithmic chemical knowledge base of transform libraries that are automatically generated from reaction databases.
- Chematica (Now known as Synthia)
- ASKCOS â Open-source suite of synthesis planning and computational chemistry tools.
See also
References