formic acid

CHEBI:30751 ·resolve ·ANTIBACTERIAL ·EXACT SEEDED

The simplest carboxylic acid, containing a single carbon. Occurs naturally in various sources including the venom of bee and ant stings, and is a useful organic synthetic reagent. Principally used as a preservative and antibacterial agent in livestock feed. Induces severe metabolic acidosis and ocular injury in human subjects. — ChEBI

Machine-generated and unreviewed. Identity, structure and cross-references come straight from ChEBI's and CARD's own data; no curator has signed off on this record yet.

Classification

Strictly broader compounds or drug classes this molecule belongs to.

CHEBI:25384 CHEBI:25384

Chemical structure

Computed structure properties
Molecular formula	CH2O2
Charge	0
Average mass	46.025 Da
Monoisotopic mass	46.00548 Da
Source	ChEBI
InChIKey	BDAGIHXWWSANSR-UHFFFAOYSA-N

SMILES

[H]C(=O)O

InChI

InChI=1S/CH2O2/c2-1-3/h1H,(H,2,3)

Also called

Acide formique (EXACT_SYNONYM)— chebi
Ameisensäure (EXACT_SYNONYM)— chebi
FORMIC ACID (EXACT_SYNONYM)— chebi
Formic acid (EXACT_SYNONYM)— chebi
HCO2H (EXACT_SYNONYM)— chebi
HCOOH (EXACT_SYNONYM)— chebi
H‒COOH (EXACT_SYNONYM)— chebi
Methanoic acid (EXACT_SYNONYM)— chebi
aminic acid (EXACT_SYNONYM)— chebi
bilorin (EXACT_SYNONYM)— chebi
formylic acid (EXACT_SYNONYM)— chebi
hydrogen carboxylic acid (EXACT_SYNONYM)— chebi
methoic acid (EXACT_SYNONYM)— chebi

Cross-references

Equivalent identifiers for this same structure in other resources.

bpdb:1749
cas:64-18-6
drugbank:DB01942
gmelin:1008
hmdb:HMDB0000142
kegg.compound:C00058
knapsack:C00001182
lipidmaps:LMFA01010040
metacyc.compound:FORMATE
patent:CN101481304
pdb-ccd:FMT
reaxys:1209246
wikipedia.en:Formic_acid

Activity roles

Every antimicrobial role a source asserts for this compound — the unreduced evidence behind its antimicrobial_class.

CHEBI:33282 CHEBI:33282

Source concepts

Every upstream concept that resolved to this record. The merge is the product: this is what shows ChEBI and CARD are describing the same structure.

Upstream concepts merged into this record
Source	Native ID	Label	Minted CURIE	Version
CHEBI	`CHEBI:30751`	formic acid	`antibioticmech:chebi-feab863202`	2026-08-30

Curation history

SEEDED_FROM_SOURCES 2026-08-30 · seed_from_sources
Seeded from data/raw/ inventories (CHEBI)
RESEEDED_FROM_SOURCES 2026-08-30 · seed_from_sources
Re-seeded from updated data/raw/ inventories
RESEEDED_FROM_SOURCES 2026-08-30 · seed_from_sources
Re-seeded from updated data/raw/ inventories

Provenance

Seeded by scripts/seed_from_sources.py from the committed inventories in data/raw/. View the record.