红豆杉属(Taxus L.)植物全世界共 11 种, 分布于北半球的温带至亚热带地区。 我国有 4种 1 变种, 即:东北红豆杉(T .cuspidata Sieb.et Zucc.)、云南红豆杉(T .y unnanensis Cheng et L.K .Fu)、西藏红豆杉(T .wallichiana Zucc.)、中国红豆杉〔 T .chinensis (Pilger)Rehd .〕和南方红豆杉〔 T .chinensis var.mairei (Lemee et Lévl.)Cheng et L.K.F u〕, 分布于我国大部分地区, 较为集中的产区为东北、西南和华东地区。 云南省是我国红豆杉资源的主要分布区域。 红豆杉树皮中含有新型抗癌药物紫杉醇, 近年来, 由于过度砍剥致使我国红豆杉野生资源遭到严重破坏。 因此必须制定保护措施, 进行人工种植。 由于紫杉醇在红豆杉中含量甚微, 结构异常复杂, 所以研究紫杉醇的新来源成为世界性的热点, 主要研究内容包括:非树皮部分的提取, 人工大量种植 , 衍生物的寻找, 化学合成和生物技术等。 我国在以上研究领域内已取得多项成果, 但与世界先进国家相比还有一定的差距, 有待深入研究。
 

The status of Taxus resources and taxol production w as introduced .In China , Taxus includes 4 species and 1 variety , e.g . Taxus cuspidata Sieb .et Zucc., T . y unnanensis Cheng et L .K .Fu , T .wallichiana Zucc., T .chinensis (Pilger) Rehd .and T .chinensis var. mairei (Lemee et Lévl .)Cheng et L .K .Fu .Their distributions centralize in the northeast , southwest and east area in China , especially in Yunnan Province .There are about 1 350 000 of Taxus trees in the west region of Heng Duan mountain in the west Yunnan .But the wild resources are destroy ed seriously. Therefore, the protection and artificial cultivation of the wild resources are necessary. Taxol is a new antitumor compound which exhibits the remarkable potential for the treatment of breast and ovarian cancers .Taxol production is presently an important research field because of its low content and structural complexity , the extraction from other parts of the plants besides bark , the artificial cultivation , chemical synthesis , the research on taxol deriv ative and biotechnology have been studied .In China , some results in taxol production have been obtained , but more works should be done in the future.