Taxus Species: From Medical Use to Landscape Architecture

Abstract

Turkey is located in the temperate zone and has vegetation rich in biodiversity compared to many neighboring countries. More than 12,000 plant taxa grow naturally in Turkey, and the number of plant species is close to the number of plant species in Europe. It is one of the important countries in the world with approximately 3,649 endemic taxa and an endemism rate of more than 30%. Yew trees (Taxus sp.) are evergreen trees and ornamental plants widely used for landscaping in North America, Europe and other parts of the world. However, all parts of the plant except the fleshy parts of the bright red fruits are poisonous. Taxol is the active compound isolated from the bark of the Pacific yew tree by bioactivity-directed studies of its active extract and has strong anticancer activities3. In this study, biological and biochemical studies of Taxus species and their use in landscaping were evaluated.