• KSBB Journal
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.263-269
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• 1996

Anticancer agent taxol was synthesized from baccatin III which was extracted from cell cultures of European yew, Taxus baccata Pendula. Callus and suspension cultures of T. baccata Pendula showed the formation baccatin III. The content of baccatin III in cell cultures reached 0.015% (w/w) on dry weight basis. The semisynthetic approaches were made with baccatin III and taxol side chain. To prepare taxol side chain, (-)-N-((S)-2-hydroxy-1-phenylethyl) benzamide was synthesized first from (S)-(+)-phenylglycine. Then (-)-N-((IS,2S)-2-hydroxy-1-phenyl-3-butenyl) benzamide was synthesized with vinyl magnesium bromide. The synthesis of (2R, 3S)-(-)-2-(1-ethoxyethoxy)-3-phenyl-3-(phenylmethanamido) propanoic acid with RuCl3, catalyst was the final step to prepare taxol side chain. The semisynthetic reactions yielded 0.0002% taxol, 0.0005% 7-epi-10-deacetyltaxol, and unidentified taxanes on dry weight basis. It is suggested that the semisynthesis of taxol from baccatin III could be an alternative source of taxol and related taxanes.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.97-99
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• 1999

Endophytic fungi from Ginkgo biloba and Taxus cuspidata in Korea were screened for production of taxol. Eighteen and twelve fungal isolates from G. biloba and T. cuspidata, respectively, were shown to produce immunologically detectable amount of taxol. The highest production of taxol at 260 ng/l was achieved by stationary culture of an Alternaria isolate from G. biloba. The strain also produced unidentified antifungal agent(s) against Pythium ultimum. However, the activity gradually decreased when the strain was stored at $4^{\circ}C$ for 6 months.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.299-305
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• 1994

Taxol contents in various parts of 15 years old yew tree were determined. The descending order of taxol content per unit mass was stem bark, root bark, needle and seed. In the seed, that order was seed coat, embryo and endosperm. The total amount of taxol extractable from a 15 years old yew tree was 1.68 gram. This amount was distributed in needle, stem bark, root bark and seeds as 48.0, 23.8, 27.9 and 0.4%, respectively. Altitudinal variation of taxol content was also observed. More taxol was observed in yew trees grown at high altitude over 1000m above sea level. Calli and suspension cultures were induced from various yew trees. The presence of taxo] in cultured cells was established bv HPLC. The taxol content in cultured cells were different according to the source of explants. These results may be useful for the goal of large scale taxol production by cultured yew tree cells.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.125-131
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• 2015

Currently, taxol is mainly extracted from the bark of yews; however, this method can not meet its increasing demand on the market because yews grow very slowly and are a rare and endangered species belonging to first-level conservation plants. Recently, increasing efforts have been made to develop alternative means of taxol production; microbe fermentation would be a very promising method to increase the production scale of taxol. To determine the activities of the taxol extracted from endophytic fungus N. sylviforme HDFS4-26 in inhibiting the growth and causing the apoptosis of cancer cells, on comparison with the taxol extracted from the bark of yew, we used cellular morphology, cell counting kit (CCK-8) assay, staining (HO33258/PI and Giemsa), DNA agarose gel electrophoresis and flow cytometry (FCM) analyses to determine the apoptosis status of breast cancer MCF-7 cells, cervical cancer HeLa cells and ovarian cancer HO8910 cells. Our results showed that the fungal taxol inhibited the growth of MCF-7, HeLa and HO8910 cells in a dose-and time-dependent manner. IC50 values of fungal taxol for HeLa, MCF-7 and HO8910 cells were $0.1-1.0{\mu}g/ml$, $0.001-0.01{\mu}g/ml$ and $0.01-0.1{\mu}g/ml$, respectively. The fungal taxol induced these tumor cells to undergo apoptosis with typical apoptotic characteristics, including morphological changes for chromatin condensation, chromatin crescent formation, nucleus fragmentation, apoptotic body formation and G2/M cell cycle arrest. The fungal taxol at the $0.01-1.0{\mu}g/ml$ had significant effects of inducing apoptosis between 24-48 h, which was the same as that of taxol extracted from yews. This study offers important information and a new resource for the production of an important anticancer drug by endofungus fermentation.

• Mycobiology
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.151-157
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• 2011

The endophytic fungal populations of different tissues of Taxus baccata grown at high altitudes in West Bengal, India were explored. These isolated fungal populations represented different genera, which were screened for taxol production using immunoassay technique. The culture AAT-TS-$4_1$ that produced taxol was identified as Gliocladium sp. based on its cultural, morphological characteristics, internal transcribed spacer, and 18S rRNA sequence analysis. Kinetics of taxol production as a function of culture growth were investigated.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.186-190
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• 1994

The content of taxol and related compounds in various tissues of native yews( T. cuspidata var. latifolia) grown in 5 locations of Ullung Island were analyzed. A considerable range of vanation in the content was observed in the needle and bark collected from different trees located at the same area as well as at five different areas. Taxol content was much higher in the needle(0.017% on the dry weight basis) than those in the bark, whereas the content of 10-deacetyl baccatin III(10-DAB III) was slightly higher in the bark(0.073%), regardless of the location of the trees collected. Particuayly, the needle collected from the Hyunpo area, which located in North-west part of Ullung Island, contained the highest level of taxol(0.024%) exceeding the reported level in dried barks of Pacific yew and also somewhat higher level of its Precusor, 10-DAB III(0.049%). These results suggested that the needle of the yew at the Ullung Island could be suitable materials as a renewable source for the mass production of taxol.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.450-456
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• 1994

The effects of sucrose on cell growth and anticancer drug taxol production were investigated in cell suspension cultures of Taxus cuspidata. The cells were cultured at various concentrations of sucrose (20 to $100g/\ell$). The highest specific growth rata was achieved at $40g/\ell$ of sucrose as 0.076 day-1 and the highest final cell density, 34 g DCW/$\ell$ after 25 days of culture, was obtained at $60g/\ell$ of sucrose. The cell yield(Yx/s) was found to be 0.55g cell/g sucrose and doubling time (Td) was 9.12 day. High concentration of sucrose (80, $100g/\ell$) and the addition of osmoticum enhanced the production of taxol significantly. The maximum taxol production was $1.36mg/\ell$ at $80g/\ell$ of sucrose, which was 0.01% as a specific content.

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.239-243
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• 2001

Selection of oocyte cryopreservation method is a prerequisite factor for developing an effective bank system. Compared with slow freezing method, the vitrification has various advantages such as avoiding intracellular ice crustal formation. In our previous, we attempted to employ a vitrification method using ethylene glycol and an electron microscope grid for cryopreservation of mouse oocytes. However, A high incidence of spindle and chromosome abnormalities was detected in thawed oocytes after vitrification. We examined whether the addition of a cystoskeleton stabilizer Taxol $^{TM}$, to the vitrification solution could promote the post-thawed survival and subsequent development of stored oocytes. More oocytes developed to the 4-cell (44.7% vs. 69.7%), 8-cell (31.8% vs. 64.2%), morula (24.7% vs. 54.3%), and blastocyst (20.3% vs. 49.2%) stages after the addition of Taxol$^{TM}$ to the cryoprotectant than after no addition. 21 and 26 mouse pups were born after transfer of blastocyst derived from oocytes vitrified without and with Taxol. The addition of Taxol to vitrification solution greatly promoted post-thaw preimplantation development of ICR morose oocytes.tes.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.91-98
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• 1999

The content of taxol and related compounds in needle and stem tissues of exotic yews growing in the Chollipo Arboretum which located in the West Sea of Korea were determined by HPLC. A considerable variation in contents of taxol and the related compounds within species and among cultivars were observed. The content of taxol was much higher in the needles than those in the young stem tissues except T. X media cv. Vermuleun, T. baccata cv. Washingtonii, and T. X cuspidata cv. Nana, and the content of 10-deacetyl baccatin III(10-DAB III) was also slightly higher in the needle. The needle of T. cuspidata cv. Nigra collected from April was contained the high amount of taxol(1,027 ${\mu}g$ per g dry weight) and also contained high quantity in 10-DAB III(267 ${\mu}g$ per g dry weight). Concentration of taxol in needle was significantly greater than those of meristemic and ovary tissues, Exotic yews growing at the Chollipo Arboretum containing T. cuspidata cv. Nigra could be suitable materials as a source for the tissue and cell cultures for production of taxol.

• Proceedings of the Botanical Society of Korea Conference
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• 1995.06a
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• pp.57-66
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• 1995