Separation of Taxol From Yew Tree By Preparative NP-HPLC

초록

Taxol (Paclitaxel) is a powerful anticancer produced by the Pacific yew (Taxus brevifolia). In this work, the separation of taxol from Yew tree was studied with solvent extraction and liquid chromatography. The content of taxol in the tree was found to be 0.064 mg/g of dry powder. The solvent used in the extraction step was methanol and the extract was concentrated by the partition of water and methylene chloride. Impurities were removed in the pretreatment step by open tubular chromatography, where the first mobile phase was MC/Acetone, 97/3 vol.% and the second mobile phase MC/Acetone, 75/25 vol.%. The sample was further separated by varying the compositions of solvent, flow rates, and injection amounts in analytical chromatography. These experimental conditions were used in preparative liquid chromatography. In a semi-preparative scale column (3.9×300mm) with larger particle sizes (Lichrospher Si 60, 15㎛), the mobile phase composition was hexane/2-propanol/MeOH, 90/4/6 vol.% in isocratic mode. At 1.5ml/min and the experimental condition 2.58mg of taxol was collected at an injection. In a preparative column (22×250mm) packed by the same packings with the same mobile phase compositions at 16ml/min. The retention time of taxol was 177min and 2.41mg of taxol was purified in a single run.