ABSTRACT
The toxicity of Taxus plants has been known for a long time (reports date as far back as the time of Julius Caesar).[13] In the 19th century, phytochemical work attributed Taxus toxicity to an alkaloid that was called taxine. This alkaloid was a complex mixture, isolated from leaves. Taxine was later shown to be a mixture of more than seven alkaloids, with taxine A and taxine B as main constituents. Taxines are very strong cardiotoxic agents; they cause convulsions, fall in blood pressure, and stopping of the heart in diastole. Phytochemical work on Taxus during the 1940s and 1950s was focused on taxines and their cinnamate analogues, taxinines. The discovery of the potent cytostatic agent paclitaxel in Taxus bark in the late 1960s overshadowed any interest in taxines. Paclitaxel and the semisynthetic derivative docetaxel attracted unprecedented interest and remained the major research topic for scientists on diverse areas as follows: phytochemistry, pharmacognosy, molecular pharmacology, synthetic chemistry, analytical chemistry, and, most of all, clinical medicine.
