Welcome to PungentDB!

Chinese ancient physicians perceived the natural of Chinese herbal medicines (CHMs) through temperature, taste and smell in long-term clinical practice. However, due to the limitation of the medical level at that time, the scientific connotation of temperature and olfactory receptors could not be explained at the molecular level. Recognition of pungent flavor (with pungent flavor ‘taste’, hot, cold or odor) from pungent flavor CHMs was thought to be a complex, multi-sensory human experience with a rich evolutionary history and long-term clinical practice. Pungent flavor was an expression of pungent olfactory, temperature and gustatory/taste sensations experienced through a multitude of chemical processes triggered by pungent molecules. Establishing such a database of pungent compounds from pungent CHMs was of great significance for flourishing the research of pungent CHMs. We have built PungentDB database (http://www.pungentdb.org.cn/home) with abundant chemical and biological information for pungent flavor in pungent flavor CHMs, which were reported to hot/warm temperature or smell pungent odor to humans. This study will provide a basis for explaining the relationship between pungent flavor in CHMs, olfactory, temperature.