Abstract
Taxol is a highly valuable FDA approved anticancer drug broadly used in the treatment of cancers. An efficient alternative source for the production of taxol is the fermentation processes utilizing taxol producing endophytic fungi. In our study, ninety fungal strains were isolated from different Taxus plants collected from different areas of Pakistan. The isolated strains were checked for taxol production under static conditions. Out of ninety strains, thirty-one strains showed the production of taxol in their fermentation broth. Among taxol producing strains, the maximum production of taxol (340 ± 0.018 µg/L) was shown by the strain HM27. The strain HM27 was identified as Aspergillus niger on the basis of morphological characters such as colony color, texture, and size, etc. The endophytic fungal strain was isolated from Taxus fauna bark, collected from Miandam, District Swat, Pakistan. The taxol produced by endophytic fungi was detected by thin layer chromatography and further quantified by using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The endophytic fungi may be proved as excellent sources of this anticancer drug.
