Mass spectrometry is widely used in bioanalysis, including the fields of 
metabolomics and proteomics, to simultaneously measure large numbers of 
molecules in complex biological samples. Contaminants routinely occur within 
these samples, for example, originating from the solvents or plasticware. 
Identification of these contaminants is crucial to enable their removal before 
data analysis, in particular to maintain the validity of conclusions drawn from 
uni- and multivariate statistical analyses. Although efforts have been made to 
report contaminants within mass spectra, this information is fragmented and its 
accessibility is relatively limited. In response to the needs of the 
bioanalytical community, here we report the creation of an extensive manually 
well-annotated database of currently known small molecule contaminants.
AVAILABILITY: The Mass spectrometry Contaminants Database (MaConDa) is freely 
available and accessible through all major browsers or by using the MaConDa web 
service http://www.maconda.bham.ac.uk.