Abstract
Taxus mairei is an important source for industrial extraction of taxol in China. However, the standard and steps of extraction are currently not uniform, which seriously affects the taxol yield. In the present study, the influence of four factors (methanol concentration, solid-liquid ratio, ultrasonic extraction temperature, and ultrasonic extraction time) on the taxol yield was successively explored in T. mairei. A response surface methodology (RSM) was used to optimize the extraction process based on the single-factor experiments above. The optimal conditions were as follows: methanol concentration was 90%, solid-liquid ratio was 1:15 (g/mL), ultrasonic extraction temperature was 40 °C and ultrasonic extraction time was 60 min. Moreover, the twigs and needles from T. mairei with different tree ages were treated by the optimum extraction process, which further revealed temporal and spatial distribution of taxol in the reproducible tissues. Interestingly, the taxol content was relatively higher in needles of T. ‘Jinxishan’ (a cultivar from T. mairei with yellow aril, FY), but was less in FY twigs. The accumulation of taxol in twigs and leaves of females (with red aril, FR) was significantly higher than that of males (M); however, the content showed a decreasing trend with the increasing tree ages. Therefore, it is suitable to increase the proportion of female trees especially the FY leaves as raw materials for the industrial production of taxol from T. mairei, and the tree ages should be better controlled at 3–7 years.
Highlights
Taxol, a tetracyclic diterpenoid compound originally isolated from Taxus brevifolia [1], is considered one of the most effective anticancer drugs in the clinical treatment of leukemia, Kaposi’s sarcoma, ovarian, breast, and non-small cell lung cancers [2,3]
The taxol yield increased rapidly from 15.41 ± 0.80 μg/g to 44 ± 1.05 μg/g as the methanol concentration increased from 70% to 80%, and the maxima (47.33 ± 0.96 μg/g) appeared at 90% of methanol concentration
The results showed that the taxol content in FY leaves was the highest, which indicated a promising source for industrial extraction of taxol as well as an excellent material for the research of taxol biosynthesis
Summary
A tetracyclic diterpenoid compound originally isolated from Taxus brevifolia [1], is considered one of the most effective anticancer drugs in the clinical treatment of leukemia, Kaposi’s sarcoma, ovarian, breast, and non-small cell lung cancers [2,3]. Response surface methodology (RSM) is a statistical method for exploring optimal process parameters and solving multivariable problems by analysis of the response surface contours [11]. This method uses multiple quadratic regression equations to fit the functional relationship between the factors and the response values, which can visually show the influence of each factor on the yield, and further analyze the interaction between various factors [12,13]. RSM provides highly accurate predictions for the extraction of plant active ingredients, which could be considered an appropriate strategy for the bulk extraction of taxol from Taxus trees
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