Taxines from the needles of Taxus wallichiana.

A taxine, 5 alpha O-(3'-dimethylamino-3'-phenylpropionyl) taxinine M (1) together with two known compounds 7-O-acetyltaxine A (2) and 2 alpha-acetoxy-2' beta-deacetylaustrospicatine (3) were isolated from the needles of the Himalayan yew, Taxus wallichiana Zucc. Their structures were elucidated on the basis of the NMR spectral data, ESI-MS/MS analysis and chemical methods. Compounds 1 and 3 showed moderate cytotoxic activity against the lung cancer cell line A549 in vitro.