ABSTRACT
Regarded as one of the most promising cancer chemotherapeutic agents to appear in decades, Taxol represents a striking example of the return on investment in basic science. The history of this remarkable medicinal lead is inextricably entwined with that of its source, the yew, which for millennia had furnished materials for shelter, transportation, art, weaponry, poisons, and folk medicines. Only in the last century, however, were the initial steps taken to isolate and identify the constituent chemical treasures of this tree. A full century later, as a result of pioneering contributions from a global scientific community, the structures of several of these constituents were finally established and found to share a new carbon framework for which the name taxane was given in recognition of its yew (Taxus) source.1–3
