Recovery of extracellular paclitaxel from suspension culture of Taxus chinensis by adding inorganic salts

A new and simple method was developed to recover paclitaxel from the extracellular culture medium of Taxus chinensis. More than 80% of paclitaxel in the medium was obtained by adding 7.8 mM MgSO4 or greater and then centrifuging. The concentration of baccatin III in the supernatant did not change after MgSO4 treatment while paclitaxel was precipitated in the pellet. This method was used to recover paclitaxel without baccatin III from the extracellular culture medium of Taxus species.