62
中
草藥園地
譚敦民
（電臺資深編導）
Tam Dan Min
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當世界各國都為無法攻克癌症而焦灼的時候，紅豆杉中
紫杉醇的發現，像一棵救命的靈芝草，給癌症患者帶來了生
的希望。 1992 年美國施貴寶公司，從紅豆杉中提取出天然
抗癌物質－紫杉醇。紫杉醇具有獨特的抗腫瘤作用，能夠顯
著地抑制腫瘤生長，對晚期卵巢癌、乳腺癌、非小細胞肺
癌、卡波氏肉瘤等療效確切，而且副作用很小。可以預期，
紅豆杉這種神奇的“國寶”級植物為人類做出更大貢獻的時
代即將來臨。
聞名美國的一個長壽小村鎮
20世紀初，美國西部山區有一片紅豆杉林，山林中有一個小
村鎮，住著2000多居民。這個小村鎮雖然不大，卻以長壽而聞名
美國，小村鎮人壽命最短的都活到95歲以上，絕大多數人壽命都
在100歲以上，百歲壽星處處可見！這則新聞吸引了不少科學家的
目光，科學家紛紛到這裡考察，然而他們並沒有發現這裡人的奇
異之處，飲食生活與其他地區人群並無太大差別。仔細觀察之
後，發現這裡的居民有兩個與紅豆杉有關的生活習慣，一是他們
好採摘紅豆杉樹葉泡茶喝；二是經常到紅豆杉樹林中散步或者運
動。
天然抗癌物質紫杉醇
這種現象引起了科學家的極大興趣，經過他們的不懈努力，
1992年，美國施貴寶公司從紅豆杉中提取出天然抗癌物質紫杉
醇。接著，英國、俄羅斯、韓國和我國的科研人員也都從中提取
出這種珍貴的藥物。紫杉醇具有獨特的抗腫瘤作用，能夠顯著地
AWONDER ANTI-CANCER
PLANT: THE PACIFICYEW
Despite its unpretentious
past, the Pacific yew has now
become the "Cinderella" of trees
as a powerful chemotherapy
agent taxol is extracted from its
bark and marketed by Bristol-
Myers Squibb for ovarian,
breast, non-small cell lung can-
cers and Kaposi sarcomas.
Other species of yew trees also
occur elsewhere, but the yield of
taxol may be less. Taxol is very
precious - the annual natural
production is less than 300 Kg,
at USD 8-11 million per Kg - an
amount requiring thousands of
trees to extract. Pacific yew is so
valuable that its continued exist-
ence is now being threatened,
especially as its growth is very
slow and existing yew trees
could be up to 1,000 years old.
Vegetative reproduction is fea-
sible for Pacific yew but artificial
efforts have a limited success
rate of only 17%. Efforts on syn-
thesizing taxol are very prudent
but just as expensive. In China,
there are 5 kinds of yew trees
but a lot of these are becoming
virtually extinct. In Yunnan, a
natural forest has a collection of
yew trees. As these tend to have
a larger yield of taxol than other
Provinces, logging 92,000 trees
affected the economy amount-
ing to USD 1.3 billion. It pays to
preserve these precious trees.
