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Taxus baccata L. Taxaceae European Yew. Trees are feminine in Latin, so while Taxus has a masculine ending (-us), its specific name, baccata (meaning 'having fleshy berries' (Stearn, 1994)), agrees with it in gender by having a female ending ( -a). Distribution: Europe. Although regarded as poisonous since Theophrastus, Gerard and his school friends used to eat the red berries (they are technically called 'arils') without harm. Johnson clearly ate the fleshy arils and spat out the seed, which is as poisonous as the leaves. It is a source of taxol, an important chemotherapeutic agent for breast and other cancers. It was first extracted from the bark of T. brevifolia, the Pacific yew tree, in 1966. About 1,100 kg of bark produces 10 g of taxol, and 360,000 trees a year would have been required for the needs of the USA – an unsustainable amount. In 1990 a precursor of taxol was extracted from the needles of the European yew so saving the Pacific trees. It is now produced in fermentation tanks from cell cultures of Taxus. Curiously, there is a fungus, Nodulisporium sylviforme, which lives on the yew tree, that also produces taxol. Because taxol stops cell division, it is also used in the stents that are inserted to keep coronary arteries open. Here it inhibits – in a different way, but like anti-fouling paint on the bottom of ships – the overgrowth of endothelial cells that would otherwise eventually block the tube. The economic costs of anticancer drugs are significant. Paclitaxel ‘Taxol’ for breast cancer costs (2012) £246 every 3 weeks
Doxetaxel (synthesised from paclitaxel) for breast, ovarian and other cancers costs up to £900 every three weeks Cabazitaxel (a further synthetic) for prostate cancers costs £3,698 every 3 weeks and because of the cost is only licensed to be used in the UK after other treatments fail. Doxyrubicin (cost £915) from a bacteria, Streptomyces peucitius, is the main breast cancer drug now (2013). Photog…
Creatore
- Dr Henry Oakeley
Argomento
- Countryside
- Garden
- Herbal remedies
- Petal
- Poison
- Red
- Giardino
Creatore
- Dr Henry Oakeley
Argomento
- Countryside
- Garden
- Herbal remedies
- Petal
- Poison
- Red
- Giardino
Fornitore di contenuti
Aggregatore
Dichiarazione dei diritti del supporto in questo record (se non diversamente specificato)
- http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Diritti
- Credit: Dr Henry Oakeley
Fonte
- B0009212
Codice di identificazione
- B0009212
- qbkcsmgk
Paese fornitore
- United Kingdom
Nome della collezione
Pubblicato per la prima volta su Europeana
- 2019-06-09T11:27:38.232Z
Ultimo aggiornamento dal fornitore di contenuti
- 2019-06-09T11:27:38.232Z