ABSTRACT
The anti-cancer medicine camptothecin was originally found in the bark and stems of an Asian tree, Camptotheca acuminata, in the Nyssaceae family. Topotecan and irinotecan are synthetic derivatives of camptothecin with a similar mode of action. Chemists and biologists collaborated in trying to cultivate cells in vitro but only quite low levels of camptothecin were produced. Camptothecin itself is produced by natural infection of tree cells with endophytic fungi and there has been some practical success with in vitro cultivation of several species of unusual fungi either on their own or used to infect cultured cells from the plant. The popular name, Happy Tree, comes from the belief that an extract of the tree could relieve chronic phlegm and catarrh, often associated with repeated headaches and coughing, resulting in a Happy Patient, but this was not recorded until 1843 although there was probably folk usage long before then.
