The IrGO (Iranian traditional medicine General Ontology) database is comprised of a number of ontologies based on concepts of Iranian traditional medicine (also called Persian Medicine). Each entity corresponds to a concept derived from Makhzan-al-Advieh, an encyclopedia of materia medica compiled by Mohammad Hossein Aghili, a renowned Iranian physician of the 18th century. Ontologies are extracted from the characteristics described for each monograph and include Mizaj, action, disease, body entity (organ), and weights used in dosage.
A conspectus of IrGO demonstrating upper classes in taxonomies of Mizaj, action, disease, and body entity along with properties relating them to medicinal substances is provided in the figure below. The annotation properties provided for IrGO classes are depicted in the bottom diagram.
More detailed information on the attributes specified for every entity (class) in the database is provided in the following table.
| Feature | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
| Class information | |
| Entity | A distinct class in a subontology (Mizaj, action, disease, organ, and weight unit) extracted from Makhzan-al-Advieh. |
| Ontology source | The subontology (Mizaj, action, disease, organ, weight unit) an entity belongs to. |
| Label | An abbreviated English label assigned to an entity. |
| IrGO ID | A unique URI identifier, constructed from a base URI, a prefix (IrGO) and a local identifier (number code). |
| Annotations | |
| Persian label | The major Persian term by which an entity is recognized in Makhzan-al-Advieh. |
| Alternative Term | Terms other than the primary Persian label that either have been attributed to the entity in Makhzan-al-Advieh or may be used as an alternative term or synonym for the entity in Persian Medicine. |
| Persian definition | Persian definition of a class that makes use of the Aristotelian genus and differentia structure. |
| English definition | English definition of a class that makes use of the Aristotelian genus and differentia structure. |
| Comment | Opinions and remarks expressed by Persian scholars regarding a concept. |
| Relations | |
| Superclass-of | The immediate children of a class in the taxonomy indicating a subsumption relation. |
| Subclass-of (is-a) | The immediate parent of a class in the taxonomy, denoting the is-a relation. |
| Part-of | The part-of relation is used to represent part-whole relationships between two nodes in a taxonomy. |