Abstract Taxol has remarkable anticancer activity and unique anticancer mechanism.It is being now mainly utilized on late treatment for breast and ovarian cancers. The molecular structure of taxol is complex. It has special tricyclic carbon skeleton[6.8.6], double bond at the bridged carbon and many oxygenous substituent groups. The total synthesis of taxol has attracted interests of many organic chemists domestic and abroad. This paper briefly introduces the preparation, anticancer mechanism and the side effect of taxol.
