Taxus chinensis Taxus Taxaceae TAXUS BACCATA extract Paclitaxel Taxol PTX Docetaxel 33069-62-4

Paclitaxel is an antineoplastic that used to treat patients with lung, ovarian, breast cancer, head and neck cancer, and advanc ed forms of Kaposi's sarcoma. Paclitaxel is a mitotic inhibitor used in cancer chemotherapy. It is also used in the study of structure and function of microtubles into tubulin

Paclitaxel (commercial name, Taxol) a complex diterpene alkaloid isnaturally obtained from Taxus species (family Taxaceae). Paclitaxel has been provedas highly effective in the treatment of various types of cancers, since it acts as amicrotubule-stabilizing agent to protect against disassembly. Paclitaxel was developed by the National Cancer Institute, USA, as a drug for cancer therapy andused for the treatment of refractory ovarian cancer, metastatic breast and lung cancer,and Kaposi’s sarcoma (Srivastava et al. 2005). The natural source of paclitaxelis the bark of several Taxus species; however, the cost of extraction is very highsince the concentration of paclitaxel accumulation is very low (0.02% of dry weight)and also entails the destruction of natural resources (Cusido et al. 2014). Eventhough, paclitaxel can be chemically synthesized, but this process is not commerciallyviable. Plant cell cultures have been developed for the production of paclitaxelby Phyton Biotech in 1995, and in 2004 the FDA has approved the use of plantculture supply of paclitaxel/Taxol (Leone and Roberts 2013).