This work presents a second-to-none method for Taxol isolation from the Endophytic fungus Cladosporium
sphaerospermum (AUMC 6896) and the Entomopathogenic fungus Metarizium anisopliae (AUMC 5130). The
extracts were analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and Liquid chromatography coupled
to tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) using positive electrospray ionization (ESI) in the multiple reaction
monitoring (MRM) mode. This is rapid, consistent, reproducible, accurate, and sensitive for quantifying Taxol
across multiple samples. The yield of crude Taxol product obtained from Potato Dextrose broth (PDB) medium
inoculated with Cladosporium sphaerospermu and Metarizium anisopliae was found to be 3.732, and
0.0023 μg L−1 respectively. The yield can be improved by adding ammonium acetate or salicylic acid to the
culture broth. Addition of ammonium acetate (AA) (20 mg L−1
) to culture media resulted in an increase of Taxol
yield to 30.365 and 27.289 μg L−1 respectively. Production of Taxol was 29.844 and 67.254 μg L−1 for the two
fungus species when ammonium acetate was substituted by 90 mg L−1 salicylic acid (SA). Adding both AA
(20 mg L−1
) and SA (90 mg L−1
) to the culture media resulted in an increase of the Taxol yield to 4.054 and
116.373 μg L−1 respectively.
Our proposed analytical method offers very fast (3 min) quantitation of Taxol in comparison with other
published methods. These findings represent a new bioprospecting of the endophytic fungi that may serve as a
potential material for the production of Taxol for anticancer treatment.