Taxol and taxane formation in plant cell culture

Abstract

The production of taxol, cephalomannine and baccatin III from a suspension cell culture of Taxus brevifolia has been investigated using HPLC and tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). Interference from other products in the cell culture medium led to development of an MS/MS assay based on negative ion desorption chemical ionization using [²H₃]-labelled internal standards for measurements of these compounds at the level of 2–8 ng cm^–3 of medium. The use of parent scans allowed the detection of a number of new taxanes for further study.