The task of finding a particular molecule in a database that contains more than 17'000 compounds seems easy: just enter the molecule's name and click OK, e. g. in ChemBrain's Open molecule datasheet form (see screenshots).

Unfortunately however, since molecules can have a scientific name, a trade name, a trivial name or any other kind of name, it might very well be that you will not find the requested molecule under the name you entered. Therefore, ChemBrain provides several alternative ways of finding the requested target:

1. In the Open molecule datasheet form you can filter the names list by a name fragment, or

2. you may draw the complete structure of the target molecule and then start the search, or

3. you may just draw some fragments of the target molecule. The search command will then carry out a fragment search in the complete database, optionally restricted to molecules of a defined class/project and/or known molecular property, or extended by ignoring the atom charges, numbers and/or bond types. In the resulting hitlist you will find the target molecule, the datasheet of which you can then open by doubleclicking on it.

ChemBrain presents each target molecule in a separate datasheet, which is explained elsewhere.