Large-scale purification of 13-dehydroxybaccatin III and 10-deacetylpaclitaxel, semi-synthetic precursors of paclitaxel, from cell cultures of Taxus chinensis.

The taxane derivatives 13-dehydroxybaccatin III (13-DHB III) and 10-deacetylpaclitaxel (10-DAP) can be used as semi-synthetic precursors of paclitaxel. These precursors were isolated in a simple and economical procedure during purification of paclitaxel from plant cell culture extracts. No additional costs for cell culture or extraction by silica-gel low-pressure chromatography were incurred. Precipitation from dichloromethane/n-hexane followed by HPLC on ODS and silica-gel resins resulted in paclitaxel of 99.5% purity with 80% overall yield. ODS low-pressure chromatography and THF/n-hexane precipitation yielded 13-dehydroxybaccatin III at >99% purity with 87.1% overall yield, and ODS low-pressure chromatography alone yielded 10-deacetylpaclitaxel at >90% purity with 93.4% overall yield. These compounds are of sufficient purity for use in semi-synthesis of paclitaxel. Both compounds were obtained in high yield at >99.5% purity using ODS-HPLC. The procedures described allow the simultaneous purification of 13-dehydroxybaccatin III, 10-deacetylpaclitaxel, and paclitaxel with only minimal additional expense for reagents or equipment.