Natural Sources of Taxol

Taxol® is the most successful anticancer agent developed in the last 50 years. The alkaloid taxol and other taxoids were at first isolated from T. brevifolia. Because of the small yield that threatened existence of the natural population due to exploitation for taxol, a search for alternative sources were made among Taxus species. As a result, isolation of taxol and other taxanes were achieved in all Taxus species. The success encouraged exploration of other members of Taxaceae, the gymnosperms, and angiosperms. In order to address the supply crisis, microbial endophytes sources in known taxol and non-taxol-producing plants were further explored with resultant successes. Production of taxol in endophytes is yet to translate into industrial production. Application of biotechnology through metabolic engineering is hoped to address the supply of taxol to meet demand for the production of the anticancer drug, considering the increasing prevalence of cancer around the world.