The American Chemical Society’s Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) has recorded its 50 millionth small molecule in its CAS registry, a database of chemical information.

“Reaching the 50 million mark so quickly is an indicator of the accelerating pace of scientific knowledge,” according to a press release, which notes that the 40 millionth substance was registered 9 months ago.

Number 50 million’s chemical name is (5Z)-5-[(5-Fluoro-2-hydroxyphenyl)methylene]-2-(4-methyl-1-piperazinyl)-4(5H)-thiazolone, and it’s a potential reliever for neuropathic (nerve) pain.

On Sciencebase, David Bradley notes that the predominant source of this new chemical substance information is the global patent literature. Several years ago, patents accounted for approximately 20 percent of the substance information added to the registry. WIth the explosion of patent literature today, that number is closer to 70 percent. “If they’re scraping patents on such a vast scale, is the addition of a few extra million entries actually representative of technological advance?” he wonders.

Chart: CAS/wikipedia