A brief history of taxol

Abstract

Traditional application of plant in folk medicine is a base for discovery of new active chemical substances. In the second half of 20th century, significant antitumor activity of extract from bark of the Yew tree was recognized. The compound that was responsible for this kind of properties has called taxol and had structure of diterpene with acyl groups. Low availability forced researchers to find different ways of taxol gaining. In the further years, many synthetic and semi-synthetic methods were developed. Nowadays, biotechnological methods with use of cell suspension cultures are introduced.

NMR-Based Configurational Assignments of Natural Products: How Floating Chirality Distance Geometry Calculations Simplify Gambling with 2N–1 Diastereomers

“…Paclitaxel ( 3 , brand name: Taxol, Chart ) was isolated from Pacific yew trees ( Taxus brevifolia ) and is used in chemotherapy for the treatment of various types of cancer. , Here, Taxol ( 3 ) was chosen as a third example for demonstrating the validity of the rDG approach toward configurational assignments without having to refer to precomputed (DFT) molecular models. NOESY data measured for 3 have been used to verify the configuration of the taxane skeleton of this compound, though only nine selected diastereomers were actually tested (this study was focused on reference-free NOE analysis rather than complete configurational assignment) .…”

Perspective Chapter: Appraisal of Paclitaxel (Taxol) Pros and Cons in the Management of Cancer – Prospects in Drug Repurposing

“…The yew tree has been historically used in the production spear points and other weapons, household implements and diverse tools [12,13]. The active compound in paclitaxel was identified by Mansukh Wani and Monroe Wall in 1971 [14][15][16]. The drug was also selected that same year by the NCI as a candidate for preclinical development and took the crucial step of entering into an agreement with the National Forest Service to ensure a harvest of the yew [17,18].…”

Ethnobotanical and pharmacological importance of Taxus wallichiana Zucc.

“…Taxanes stabilize the microtubules of cells which counteract their depolimerization. Thus, correct separation of two identical sets of chromosomes and their consequent transfer during cell division are inhibited resulting in blockage of cell mitosis ultimately leading to cell death (94). Taxanes promote microtubule polymerization and arrest mitosis through activation of spindle assembly check point and keeping a small number of unattached kinetochores to the microtubules.…”