A simple and rapid method for the determination of taxol produced by fungal endophytes from medicinal plants using high performance thin layer chromatography.

Taxol is an important anticancer drug used widely in the clinical field. In this study, some endophytic fungi were isolated from selected medicinal plants, and were screened for their potential in the production of taxol, using a rapid separation technique of high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC). Of the 20 screened fungi, only 13 fungal species produced taxol in the artificial culture medium. The results of HPTLC showed that the 13 fungal species had identical ultraviolet (UV) characteristics, positive reactivity with a spray reagent, yielding a blue spot, which turned to dark gray after 24 hours, and had Rf values identical to that of the authentic taxol. The amount of taxol was also quantified by comparing the peak area and the peak height of the fungal samples with those of authentic taxol.