DailyMed: Ingredient Search¶
Searches the DailyMed database for drug products that contain a specified active ingredient. Supports optional filtering by dosage form, strength (partial text match), and manufacturer (partial text match). Returns raw product data as JSON, a human-readable summary, and a count of matched products.
Usage¶
Use this node when you need to find drugs by active ingredient (e.g., 'acetaminophen') and optionally narrow results by dosage form, strength text, or manufacturer. Typical workflow: provide an ingredient and limit, optionally set filters, then pass the JSON results to downstream processing or use the summary for reporting.
Inputs¶
| Field | Required | Type | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ingredient | True | STRING | Active ingredient name to search for in DailyMed. | acetaminophen |
| limit | True | INT | Maximum number of results to retrieve from DailyMed before applying local filters. | 20 |
| dosage_form | False | CHOICE | Filter results by dosage form. Use 'any' to disable this filter. | tablet |
| strength_filter | False | STRING | Partial text filter applied to product strength values (case-insensitive). Leave empty to disable. | 500 mg |
| manufacturer_filter | False | STRING | Partial text filter applied to manufacturer names (case-insensitive). Leave empty to disable. | Johnson |
Outputs¶
| Field | Type | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| products_json | STRING | JSON string array of matched DailyMed product objects after optional filtering. | [{...}, {...}] |
| summary | STRING | Readable summary including total products found, top dosage forms, top manufacturers, and strength variety. | Ingredient Search Summary: Acetaminophen\n==================================================\nTotal Products Found: 18\n... |
| product_count | INT | Number of products returned after applying filters. | 18 |
Important Notes¶
- The search pulls up to 'limit' results from the API first, then applies local filters (dosage form, strength, manufacturer).
- Dosage form filter is a contains match against available dosage form text; use 'any' to disable.
- Strength and manufacturer filters are partial, case-insensitive matches; overly specific strings may yield zero results.
- Some products may lack fields like strength, dosage_form, or openfda.manufacturer_name; such items may be excluded by corresponding filters.
- products_json is a JSON string; parse it if you need structured access downstream.
- Network access is required; API timeouts or connectivity issues will return an error message in products_json and summary.
Troubleshooting¶
- No results found: Broaden the ingredient spelling, increase limit, or remove/relax filters (set dosage_form to 'any', clear strength/manufacturer filters).
- Too few results: Increase 'limit' to fetch more candidates before filters are applied.
- Manufacturer filter not working: Ensure the product has openfda.manufacturer_name; items without it cannot match this filter.
- Unexpected empty strength matches: Strength values can vary in format; try shorter or more general substrings (e.g., '500' instead of '500 mg').
- API error or timeout: Check network connectivity and try again; consider reducing limit or retrying later if the service is rate-limiting.