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News|Articles|August 5, 2026

The Natural Source Behind a Cancer Drug

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Key Takeaways

  • Arthur Barclay’s 1962 Pacific yew bark collection enabled subsequent paclitaxel isolation, establishing a foundational example of oncology drug discovery from natural products.
  • Resource scarcity emerged because the Pacific yew grows slowly, therapeutic doses required large bark quantities, and harvesting bark kills the source tree.
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Fun Fact! A 1962 bark sample from the Pacific yew, collected by a USDA botanist in Washington State, led researchers to isolate paclitaxel. That compound became Taxol, now used to treat breast, ovarian, and several other cancers.

Fun Fact! As part of a search for potential cancer cures from natural sources, in 1962, USDA botanist Arthur Barclay collected bark samples from the Pacific yew tree during a field excursion in Washington State. Researchers later isolated paclitaxel from that bark, discovering its antitumor activity.

The Pacific yew's slow growth rate, combined with the large volume of bark needed per dose, and the fact that harvesting bark kills the tree, created a supply bottleneck. These ecological and production constraints ultimately drove the shift to a semisynthetic manufacturing process, developed with Bristol-Myers Squibb in 1991. Today, the resulting drug, Taxol, is included on the World Health Organization's Model List of Essential Medicines.


Source: National Cancer Institute. A story of discovery: natural compound helps treat breast and ovarian cancers. National Cancer Institute. Published March 31, 2015. Accessed July 29, 2026. https://www.cancer.gov/research/progress/discovery/taxol

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