Canada yew is a particularly rich source of taxane, and is one of the few yews that has not been over harvested.
One well-known operation underway is a
Canada Yew processing plant in Chapleau.
To support its large-scale taxane manufacturing project, the corporation has agreements providing it with
Canada yew harvesting rights covering approximately 221,000 km2 of public and private land in Quebec.
Bateman (1977) suggested that
Canada yew (Taxus canadensis) would be the first species to decline as a result of moose browsing in the Park.
Jenkins and Bartlett (1959) reported that
Canada yew (Taxus canadensis) was practically gone and in many areas cedar seedlings were being eaten as soon as they grew above the snow level.
Trees are named for a whole litany of fine reasons, from site (water tupelo, Nyssa aquatica) to country (
Canada yew, Taxus canadensis), from shape of leaves (bigtooth aspen, Populus grandidentata) to color of bark (whitebark pine, Pinus albicualis).
Other yews, like the Taxus canadensis or
Canada yew, are also showing great promise.
But the identification of paclitaxel (as known as Taxol) from
Canada yew caused many to ask what else is out there in the bush?
For example,
Canada yew (Taxus canadensis) showed reduced reproductive effort after browsing, and slow recovery after being protected from deer (Allison, 1990).
There's other promising natural crops with
Canada Yew (an ingredient used to fight cancer) and fireweed (a skin care nutraceutical).
The most successful example of bio-prospecting is the discovery of Taxol, a drug used in cancer treatment which is derived from
Canada Yew, a naturally-grown plant in Northern Ontario.
Canada yew is one of the most successful examples of the returns from bioprospecting.