Taxol, an anticancer drug produced by an endophytic fungus Bartalinia robillardoides Tassi, isolated from a medicinal plant, Aegle marmelos Correa ex Roxb.

Taxol is an important anticancer drug widely used in the clinic. An endophytic fungus Bartalinia robillardoides (strain AMB-9) was isolated from Aegle marmelos, a medicinal plant and screened for taxol production. The fungus was identified based on the morphology of the fungal culture and the characteristics of the spores. This fungus was grown in MID liquid medium and analyzed chromatographically and spectrometrically, for the presence of Taxol. The amount of taxol produced by this endophytic fungus was quantified by HPLC. It produced 187.6 mu g/L of taxol which suggests that the fungus can serve as a potential material for genetic engineering to improve the production of Taxol. This fungal taxol isolated from the organic extract of this fungal culture, has strong cytotoxic activity towards BT 220, H116, Int 407, HL 251 and HLK 210 human cancer cells in vitro, tested by Apoptotic assay.