African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 6 (12), pp. 1382-1386, 18 June 2007   

ISSN 1684–5315 © 2007 Academic Journals        

Full Length Research Paper

Preliminary studies on cytotoxic effect of fungal taxol on cancer cell lines

V. Gangadevi and J. Muthumary*

Centre for Advanced Studies in Botany, University of Madras, Guindy Campus, Chennai – 600 025, Tamil Nadu, India.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: mm_j@rediffmail.com. Phone: 044 22350401. Fax: 91 44 22352494.

Accepted 19 January, 2007

Taxol is an important anticancer drug used widely in the clinical field. Some endophytic fungi were isolated from selected medicinal plants and screened for the production of taxol. The effect of cytotoxicity of fungal taxol isolated from fungal endophytes was investigated by apoptosis method. The presence of taxol in the culture filtrate of endophytic fungi was determined by thin layer chromatography. The fungal taxol isolated from the organic extract of six fungal cultures, had strong cytotoxic activity towards BT 220, H116, Int 407, HL 251 and HLK 210 human cancer cells in vitro.

Key words: Endophytic fungi, medicinal plants, taxol, cytotoxic activity, apoptosis.