An open implementation of the Ertl algorithm for functional group identification in organic molecules.
See the GitHub repository here: https://github.com/JonasSchaub/ErtlFunctionalGroupsFinder
The algorithm for automated functional groups detection and extraction of organic molecules developed by Dr Peter Ertl
is implemented on the basis of the Chemistry Development Kit (CDK).
This open reimplementation named ErtlFunctionalGroupsFinder is described in a scientific article.
ErtlFunctionalGroupsFinder is also available in the open Java rich client application MORTAR (‘MOlecule fRagmenTation fRamework’)
where in silico molecule fragmentation can be easily conducted on a given data set and the results visualised
(MORTAR GitHub repository, MORTAR article).
The “src” subfolder contains all source code packages including JUnit tests.
The test class ErtlFunctionalGroupsFinderTest tests the functionalities of ErtlFunctionalGroupsFinder. Among other things, it tests whether the correct functional groups are detected in example molecules.
The test “resources” subfolder contains an SD file with a small subset of small molecules taken from the Chemical Entities of Biological Interest (ChEBI) database for example usage purposes. The database is licensed under the Creative Commons License (CC BY 4.0) which allows distribution and modification.
The folder “Performance_Snapshot_App_jar” contains the executable JAVA archive ErtlFunctionalGroupsFinder-PerformanceSnapshotApp.jar. It can be executed from the command-line (command: java -jar) to do a performance snapshot of the ErtlFunctionalGroupsFinder.find() method under parallelization on multiple threads. For more details see the file “Performance usage instructions.txt”
see in “wiki”
ErtlFunctionalGroupsFinder is hosted as a package/artifact on the sonatype maven central repository. See the
artifact page for installation
guidelines using build tools like maven or gradle.
To install ErtlFunctionalGroupsFinder via its JAR archive, you can get it from the
releases. Note that other dependencies
will need to be installed via JAR archives as well this way.
In order to open the project locally, e.g. to extend it, download or clone the repository and
open it in a Gradle-supporting IDE (e.g. IntelliJ) as a Gradle project and execute the build.gradle file.
Gradle will then take care of installing all dependencies. A Java Development Kit (JDK) of version 11 or higher must also
be pre-installed.
Needs to be pre-installed:
Managed by Gradle:
Project team: Sebastian Fritsch, Stefan Neumann, Jonas Schaub, Christoph Steinbeck, and Achim Zielesny.
Logo: Kohulan Rajan
The authors thank Peter Ertl for describing his algorithm in a way that allowed easy re-implementation.
This is not always the case. We also thank him for valuable discussions.
We appreciate help from Egon Willighagen and John Mayfield with the CDK integration
and from Felix Bänsch for unbiased release testing.
ErtlFunctionalGroupsFinder
Ertl algorithm
Chemistry Development Kit (CDK)