Determination of Taxol in Taxus Media Needles in the Presence of Interfering Components

Usual methods for the analysis of taxol incorporate an extraction with organic solvents, partitioning into methylene chloride, and determination on a phenyl column using an acetonitrile-methanol-water mobile phase. Although these systems work well for extractions from bark samples, needle samples contain compounds which co-elute with taxol in this reversed phase system. We have developed an analytical method using methanol extraction, methylene chloride partitioning, and minicolumn cleanup. The influence of co-eluting compounds on taxol purity was quantified from absorbance data at 228 nm and 280 nm.