Controlled vocabulary for xenobiotic classification — community input needed

[zmahnoor14]

During early community consultations via survey, 3–4 contributors independently raised the need for a standardised way to classify xenobiotics in the MIX-MB template. This came up in different contexts — some were thinking about the source of origin (e.g., pharmaceutical, dietary, environmental contaminant, food additive), others about chemical class or functional category or even endogenous compounds such natural products and linking them to their biological resources.

The core question:

Should MIX-MB include a controlled vocabulary for xenobiotic classification, and if so — what classification axis (or axes) should it use?

Questions for the community:

1. Which classification axis is most useful for your research or data reuse purposes?
2. Is there an existing ontology or vocabulary (ChEBI, ClassyFire, MeSH, PubChem compound classes) you already use that we should align with, rather than inventing our own?
3. Should this be a Mandatory, Recommended, or Optional field in the template?
4. Would a single controlled-vocabulary column be enough, or do we need two (e.g., source + chemical class)?

Next steps:
I'll convert this into a formal Standards Feedback issue, and it will enter the 14-day review process. If you've already thought about this, please share — even a quick comment with your preferred ontology or a link to how your lab currently categorises compounds is useful.