Omolola Fatokun

First released in 2006, DrugBank (https://go.drugbank.com) has grown to become the 'gold standard' knowledge resource for drug, drug-target and related pharmaceutical information. DrugBank is widely used across many diverse biomedical research and clinical applications, and averages more than 30 million views/year. Since its last update in 2018, we have been actively enhancing the quantity and quality of the drug data in this knowledgebase. In this latest release (DrugBank 6.0), the number of FDA approved drugs has grown from 2646 to 4563 (a 72% increase), the number of investigational drugs has grown from 3394 to 6231 (a 38% increase), the number of drug-drug interactions increased from 365 984 to 1 413 413 (a 300% increase), and the number of drug-food interactions expanded from 1195 to 2475 (a 200% increase). In addition to this notable expansion in database size, we have added thousands of new, colorful, richly annotated pathways depicting drug mechanisms and drug metabolism. Likewise, existing datasets have been significantly improved and expanded, by adding more information on drug indications, drug-drug interactions, drug-food interactions and many other relevant data types for 11 891 drugs. We have also added experimental and predicted MS/MS spectra, 1D/2D-NMR spectra, CCS (collision cross section), RT (retention time) and RI (retention index) data for 9464 of DrugBank's 11 710 small molecule drugs. These and other improvements should make DrugBank 6.0 even more useful to a much wider research audience ranging from medicinal chemists to metabolomics specialists to pharmacologists.

Annona senegalensis, also known as wild custard apple and wild soursop is a member of Annonaceae family. It is a fruit tree native to Senegal and found in semi-arid to subhumid regions of Africa, with a long history of traditional use. Numerous ethnomedicinal uses have been attributed to different parts of A. senegalensis, as well as its use as food and food additives. All parts of the plant contain varying amounts of essential oils. Annogalene, annosenegalin, acetogenins, kaurenoic acid and (-)-roemerine are the major bioactive constituents of A. senegalensis. Biological activities of phytoconstituents from various parts of A. senegalensis include anticonvulsant, cytotoxic, antimicrobial, antispasmodic, anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities; others are antioxidant, antivenomous, hypnotic, anthelmintic, antiplasmodial, haemostatic, spermatogenic and insecticidal activities.

PathBank (https://pathbank.org) and its predecessor database, the Small Molecule Pathway Database (SMPDB), have been providing comprehensive metabolite pathway information for the metabolomics community since 2010. Over the past 14 years, these pathway databases have grown and evolved significantly to meet the needs of the metabolomics community and respond to continuing changes in computing technology. This year's update, PathBank 2.0, brings a number of important improvements and upgrades that should make the database more useful and more appealing to a larger cross-section of users. In particular, these improvements include: (i) a significant increase in the number of primary or canonical pathways (from 1720 to 6951); (ii) a massive increase in the total number of pathways (from 110 234 to 605 359); (iii) significant improvements to the quality of pathway diagrams and pathway descriptions; (iv) a strong emphasis on drug metabolism and drug mechanism pathways; (v) making most pathway images more slide-compatible and manuscript-compatible; (vi) adding tools to support better pathway filtering and selecting through a more complete pathway taxonomy; (vii) adding pathway analysis tools for visualizing and calculating pathway enrichment. Many other minor improvements and updates to the content, the interface and general performance of the PathBank website have also been made. Overall, we believe these upgrades and updates should greatly enhance PathBank's ease of use and its potential applications for interpreting metabolomics data.

MarkerDB (https://markerdb.ca) has become a leading resource for comprehensive information on molecular biomarkers. Over the past 3 years, the database has evolved significantly, reflecting the dynamic landscape of biomarker research and increasing demands from its user community. This year's update, which is called MarkerDB 2.0, introduces key improvements to enhance the database's usability, consistency and the range of biomarkers covered. These improvements include (i) the addition of thousands of new biomarkers and associated health conditions, (ii) the inclusion of many new biomarker types and categories, (iii) upgraded searches and data filtering functionalities, (iv) new features for exploring and understanding biomarker panels and (v) significantly expanded and improved descriptions. These upgrades, along with numerous minor improvements in content, interface, layout and overall website performance, have greatly enhanced MarkerDB's usability and capacity to facilitate biomarker interpretation across various research domains. MarkerDB remains committed to providing a free, publicly accessible platform for consolidated information on a wide range of molecular (protein, genetic, chromosomal and chemical/small molecule) biomarkers, covering diagnostic, prognostic, risk, monitoring, safety and response-related biomarkers. We are confident that these upgrades and updates will improve MarkerDB's user friendliness, increase its utility and greatly expand its potential applications to many other areas of clinical medicine and biomedical research.

Starch occurs in form of granules and constitutes a primary manner in which of carbohydrates are stored chiefly in seeds and underground organs and sparingly in other morphological parts such as leaf and bark parts of plants. Grains of transitional starch can be found in the stroma of chloroplast and cytoplasm in leaf parts when exposed to the sun and transferred to organs for storage at dark times. The shape and size, ratio of amylose and amylopectin content of starch grains are peculiar to different biological sources. A literature survey was carried out using various search engines. Journals were searched for using keywords such as microscopy, amylopectin, starch granules etc. The relative qualitative and quantitative properties of starches from various morphological parts of 35 species from 15 families were studied. The qualitative features of shape and size as observed from microscopy were not specific or peculiar to each genus and family as similar shapes and sizes cut across different species. Amylopectin and amylose contents varied considerably among all the species and can be used as one of the means of identification for medicinal plants and the delineation of plant species along with other genetic and physicochemical properties.