Suzanne Somers on Dateline tonight

Standing by Lago on this one...if you don't believe the drug manufacturer, there are a variety of other sources on the internet...

Taxol belongs to a class of chemotherapy drugs called plant alkaloids. Plant alkaloids are made from plants....The taxanes are made from the bark of the Pacific Yew tree (taxus).  http://www.chemocare.com/bio/taxol.asp

Paclitaxel is a mitotic inhibitor used in cancer chemotherapy. It was discovered in a U.S. National Cancer Institute program at the Research Triangle Institute in 1967 when Monroe E. Wall and Mansukh C. Wani isolated it from the bark of the Pacific yew tree, Taxus brevifolia and named it taxol.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paclitaxel

And actually, orange juice and granola can be completely natural (the stuff I squeezed this morning and the granola I make at home with raw ingredients), or it can be as fake as the boobs I'll have later this year (the artifically sweetened granola crap you buy in the store and Sunny D).  It's all in how you process it, isn't it?

Scientific fact (if you want to keep those straight) is that the Taxuc samples from the Pacific Yew Tree was found to be cytotxic, the active ingredient was isolated, and it was named Taxol. Taxol is currently manufactured using plant cell fermentation (PCF) technology.  Basically, a specific Taxus cell line is propagated in fermentation tanks, Paclitaxel is then extracted directly, purified by chromatography and isolated by crystallization.  They don't add an extra piece to the molecular structure labeled "Lab."

So, yea, Taxol IS derived from the Yew tree - kind of like beer is derived from wheat.  Hmm...now that gives me an idea...

MattyGroves -- Perhaps you should check out the definition of "synthesize".  You may be surprised to learn that your liver "synthesizes" any vitamins you take so that your body can make the best use of them.

The active ingredient in taxotere is derived from the yew tree, and then is synthesized in the laboratory to turn it into chemotherapy.

Though Barb1958 is correct that taxol can now be produced synthetically, it is mostly now being produced in a semi synthetic manner using  bits and pieces (leaves, bark roots) of various agriculturally grown yew species to work the process. That may be where lago got the information taxol was derived from the European Yew tree. It was the Pacific Yew that grows in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia that really started this story. 

I can remember when the 'gold rush' to find where the Yew trees were growing in British Columbia started in the 90's. My mother had a tree in her yard and joked about it's value. The need plumeted once further mean of producing taxol developed later. I'll see if I can find the link...

{Did it again, replied without noticing posts on next page, gotta learn to watch out about that. Here's the link. http://cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/subsite/yew/taxol }

Did y'all know that margarine is like one molecule away from plastic? Doesn't that just make you feel warm and fuzzy.....