Production and Characterization of Taxol as Anticancer Agent from Aspergillus terreus

Taxol, a diterpenoid was initially isolated from the bark of Taxus brevifolia, approved by FDA in 1994 as a powerful drug for metastatic ovarian carcinoma, breast and lung cancer. However, due to limitations in the production of this drug based on this plant source, the productive potentiality of fungi of this compound opened a new avenue for its commercial production. In this study, among the twenty fungal isolates screened for Taxol production, Aspergillus terreus had the highest potentiality to produce Taxol (131.2 μg/ml). The productivity of Taxol by A. terreus has been maximized by nutritional optimization using inhibitors and growth regulators. The yield of Taxol by A. terreus was maximally obtained (0.663μg/ ml) by growing the fungal isolate on potato dextrose broth medium, amended with addition of biotin at 150 μg/ml for 20 days. The chemical structure Taxol extracted of A. terreus has been verified by proton and carbon NMR, IR and UV analyses. The activity of A. terreus Taxol has been assessed towards multiple cell lines, displaying a strong anticancer activity. In conclusion, the productivity of Taxol by A. terreus has been greatly improved upon using biotin as chemical modulator, that open a new avenue for commercializing the Taxol yield by fungi.