TAXOL SOURCES

Nurgün ERDEMOGLU*°, Bilge SENER*

*Gazi University, Faculty of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmacognosy, 06330 Etiler, Ankara, TURKEY.
°Corresponding Author

Summary:
Taxol, a complex diterpenoid alkoloid, was isolated origanally from the bark of the Pacific Yew (Taxus brevifolia Nutt.; Taxaceae).Taxol has been found to be beneficial in the treatment of ovarian, breast and other cancers. However, the clinical development of taxol has been diffucult, due to supply problems. Alternative methods for the production of taxol,such as biotransformation, tissue culture, production by endophytic fungi, semisynthetic and synthetic processes have to be developed due to the limitation of its natural source.These methods have been reviewed in this article.

Key words:
Taxus, Antitumor, Taxol, Tissue culture.