ABSTRACT
Since its discovery1 one of the major problems confronting researchers in the field of Taxol and taxane discovery has been the ability to detect and quantitate its presence in extracts of plant tissues. In the earliest phases of research, a bioassay measuring cytotoxicity was used1–3 and, while this system was sensitive, it suffered severely from its inability to distinguish between Taxol and the various other cytotoxic diterpene congeners produced by the plant. The first chemical analysis procedure, not based on a bioassay system, was an HPLC assay4 used to measure the purity of the final product, but it had limited value as an assay procedure for evaluating raw material sources. Much progress has been made and a variety of new and sensitive techniques have been reported and confirmed.
