正文
获取原文件references/chebi.md
Base URLs
- OLS (Ontology Lookup Service) API:
https://www.ebi.ac.uk/ols4/api - ChEBI REST API:
https://www.ebi.ac.uk/chebi/backend/api/public
Authentication
None required. All endpoints are public.
Rate Limits
No published hard limits. EBI general guidance: reasonable usage.
Important Note
ChEBI 2.0 replaced the deprecated SOAP service with a public REST API. Use ChEBI REST for chemical records and structure searches; OLS4 remains useful for ontology traversal.
OLS4 API Endpoints (Recommended for REST/JSON)
1. Search ChEBI Terms
GET https://www.ebi.ac.uk/ols4/api/search?q={query}&ontology=chebi
Example:
GET https://www.ebi.ac.uk/ols4/api/search?q=aspirin&ontology=chebi
Returns JSON with matching ChEBI terms, IDs, definitions, synonyms.
2. Lookup by ChEBI ID
GET https://www.ebi.ac.uk/ols4/api/ontologies/chebi/terms?iri=http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/CHEBI_{id}
Example:
GET https://www.ebi.ac.uk/ols4/api/ontologies/chebi/terms?iri=http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/CHEBI_15365
Returns full term details: name, definition, synonyms, xrefs, relationships.
3. Get Term by Short Form
GET https://www.ebi.ac.uk/ols4/api/ontologies/chebi/terms/http%253A%252F%252Fpurl.obolibrary.org%252Fobo%252FCHEBI_{id}
(Double-encoded IRI in path.)
4. Term Hierarchy — Parents
GET https://www.ebi.ac.uk/ols4/api/ontologies/chebi/terms/http%253A%252F%252Fpurl.obolibrary.org%252Fobo%252FCHEBI_{id}/parents
5. Term Hierarchy — Children
GET https://www.ebi.ac.uk/ols4/api/ontologies/chebi/terms/http%253A%252F%252Fpurl.obolibrary.org%252Fobo%252FCHEBI_{id}/children
6. Ontology Metadata
GET https://www.ebi.ac.uk/ols4/api/ontologies/chebi
OLS Search Response Format
{
"response": {
"numFound": 5,
"docs": [
{
"id": "chebi:15365",
"iri": "http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/CHEBI_15365",
"label": "aspirin",
"description": ["A member of the class of benzoic acids..."],
"short_form": "CHEBI_15365",
"obo_id": "CHEBI:15365",
"ontology_name": "chebi",
"type": "class"
}
]
}
}
ChEBI 2.0 REST endpoints
| GET path (relative to the ChEBI REST base) | Parameters / purpose |
|---|---|
/compound/{chebi_id}/ |
Full entity; numeric ID or CHEBI: prefix |
/es_search/ |
term required; page=1, size=15 defaults |
/ontology/parents/{chebi_id}/ |
Ontology parents |
/ontology/children/{chebi_id}/ |
Ontology children |
/structure_search/ |
smiles, `search_type=connectivity |
/molfile/{id}/ |
Structure file |
For similarity search, use similarity between 0.4 and 1.0. The default
three_star_only=true limits structure results to three-star entries; explicitly
set false when two-star entries are also in scope. Search pagination uses page
and size. The current schema leaves several response bodies unspecified;
inspect the returned JSON before choosing field paths, and do not assume OLS's
response.docs envelope applies to ChEBI REST.
Illustrative request:
curl --fail-with-body --get 'https://www.ebi.ac.uk/chebi/backend/api/public/es_search/' \
--data-urlencode 'term=aspirin' --data-urlencode 'page=1' --data-urlencode 'size=5'
Reviewed 2026-09-30: ChEBI OpenAPI, ChEBI 2.0 migration.