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TAXUS SP. SOURSE OF ANTICANCER AGENT TAXOL

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Taxus baccata or the European yew is an ancient tree distributed throughout the temperate zones of the northern hemisphere. It is a small to medium-sized evergreen tree that has been historically used ingardening, furniture, weapons and medicine, and is poisonous except forthe fruit. The pharmacologically most valuable active compounds obtained from the yew are taxane diterpenoids, particularly taxol, which has a powerful antitumor activity. This compound is indicated for the treatment of different cancers, especially metastatic carcinoma of the ovary or metastatic breast cancer. Recommended regimens depend on the cancer type, previous treatments and posterior serious side effects. This valuable compound can be obtained by several methods: directly from the plant, by semi-synthesis or from plant cell cultures. In 2000, Bristol-Myers Squibb reported annual global sales of taxol of $1.592 billion.
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... This tree species has been shown to have significant forestry, pharmaceutical and biodiversity potential, but is locally still and maybe even increasingly endangered (e.g. Onrubia et al. 2010;Schirone et al. 2010;Linares 2013;Thomas and Garcia-Martí 2015;Jensen and Svenning 2021;Casier et al. 2024). The ongoing conversion of the prevailing lowland pine monoculture forests towards ecologically and climatically stable, i.e. mixed deciduous stands is also locally based on the reintroduction of the yew, as corresponding programmes and projects in Poland and Germany, for example, underline (Falencka-Jabłońska 2004;Litkowiec et al. 2018;Steffen and Harriehausen 2018;Rau et al. 2021). ...
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The forests along the southern Baltic Sea coast harbour some stands of the rare and endangered European yew (Taxus baccata L.), which are hypothesised to be autochthonous. Using the example of an occurrence on the Darss-Zingst peninsula, the population dynamics of the yew since the late Holocene are interdisciplinarily investigated and linked to the forest history of this area. Pollen analysis shows that yew has been present in the study area for at least 2600 years and thus indeed represents an autochthonous tree species in the area. The yew was probably originally part of a second tree storey and of forest margins within a mixed forest mainly consisting of several deciduous tree species and Scots pine. Historical evidence reveals that yew was still occurring in the forest in the middle of the eighteenth century, but then had nearly disappeared by the end of the nineteenth century. This was caused by several factors including forest grazing by livestock, high game populations and clear-cutting. First replanting of yew took place in the 1930s/1940s and 1950s/1960s, followed by planting campaigns in the 1990s and 2000s. Planting material from local and regional autochthonous relict populations was used, at least in part. The current yew population mainly comprises young individuals with a total number of ca. 1300 trees. It has thus been possible here to re-establish an autochthonous yew occurrence that was nearly extinct in historical times. This local example of targeted re-enrichment of native tree diversity may also encourage further measures to give this species a new chance again elsewhere in the wider region.
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Representative species of the Taxus genus, known since antiquity for their toxicity, have been an essential plant resource for the production of plant extracts with medicinal properties (anti-inflammatory, antifungal, and antibacterial) and, more recently, for the study of their allelopathic properties with significant implications in organic agriculture (bioherbicidal potential). With a view to the development of this new direction of research, the present work aims: to present a qualitative evaluation of two types of plant extracts (aqueous and alcoholic) of different concentrations (1% and 5%) obtained from various organs (bark, leaves, arils, and seeds) belonging to three Taxus taxa: a spontaneous taxa - Taxus baccata L. (T1) and two cultivated taxa - Taxus baccata (T2) and Taxus baccata 'Robusta' (T3) at different times of the phenological cycle by determining their absorption spectra (of both types of extracts), total amounts of polyphenols and flavonoids, and by evaluating their antioxidant capacity (alcoholic extracts); to investigate, under experimental conditions of cultivation the possible allelopathic effects induced by the aqueous extracts on the germination and development of the seedlings in two test plant species: Amaranthus retroflexus L. (ruderal species) and Lycopersicon esculentum Mill, variety Silvia (crop species). The data indicates the presence of phenolic and compounds, alkaloids, and carotenoid pigments in the alcoholic extracts prepared from the different organs of the studied yew taxa, showing higher amounts of polyphenols and flavonoids in the extracts obtained from the leaves of taxon T2 compared to taxon T1. The effect of 1% and 5% aqueous extracts obtained from the bark of the three investigated yew taxa, as well as 1% aqueous extracts prepared from the leaves of taxon T3 on seed germination and seedling growth was more pronounced in the crop species Lycopersicon esculentum Mill, variety Silvia, compared to the ruderal broadleaf weed Amaranthus retroflexus L., both species having rapid germination stimulated by ambient light. Aqueous extracts of 5% concentration obtained from the arils of plants belonging to the three yew taxa stimulated the elongation of the seedlings’ hypocotyls of both test species.
Chapter
Historically, poisonings have occurred among cattle and humans as the result of eating various parts of the yew. The seeds, leaves, and bark are toxic, but not the fruit pulp. Leaf decoctions of T. baccata have occasionally been used in folk medicine as an anthelmintic.
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Article
ChemInform is a weekly Abstracting Service, delivering concise information at a glance that was extracted from about 100 leading journals. To access a ChemInform Abstract of an article which was published elsewhere, please select a “Full Text” option. The original article is trackable via the “References” option.
Article
ChemInform is a weekly Abstracting Service, delivering concise information at a glance that was extracted from about 100 leading journals. To access a ChemInform Abstract of an article which was published elsewhere, please select a “Full Text” option. The original article is trackable via the “References” option.
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