On Dec. 18, 1992, Taxol (paclitaxel), an anticancer drug extracted from the bark of the Pacific yew, received approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of ovarian cancer that has failed other therapy.

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) spearheaded the development of the drug through collaboration with the USDA’s Forest Service, the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management, and Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, made possible by the Federal Technology Transfer Act of 1986.

The NCI Plant Programme headed by Jonathan Hartwell, a natural product chemist, liaised with Robert Perdue, a USDA botanist and analysed over 15,000 natural plants worldwide as well as testing 115,000 extracts for anticancer activity over the period from 1960 to 1981.

In August 1962, paclitaxel was isolated from the bark of the Pacific yew tree Taxus brevifolia Nutt. (Taxaceae) shipped in from Gifford Pinchot National Forest to USDA headquarters in Maryland by a 32-year-old USDA botanist, Arthur S. Barclay.

When the NCI screening programme concluded in 1981, paclitaxel was the only compound entered into clinical trials.