ABSTRACT
Taxanes have gained wide interest due to the pharmacological properties of paclitaxel (Taxol™), the most wellknown member of this large family of natural products. Paclitaxel is a complex diterpene amide originally derived from the pacific yew tree. The drug has been characterized by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) as “the most important anticancer agent for the past 15 years.” The interest in paclitaxel dates back to 1962, when crude extracts of Taxus brevifolia bark were tested in a large-scale exploratory plant-screening program of the NCI. Paclitaxel was identified as the active constituent of the bark extracts by Wani et al.[1] However, the clinical development of paclitaxel was delayed due to high toxicity, difficulties in formulation, and mainly its scarcity, which hampered a reliable supply for clinical use.
