dA novel prepurification method was developed aiming at increasing yield and purity, also reducing solvent usage for purification of paclitaxel. This method was a simple and efficient procedure, for the isolation and prepurification of paclitaxel from the biomass of Taxus chinensis, consisting of micelle formation, followed by two precipitation steps. The purity and yield were 65.8 and 80% in the prepurification step, respectively. The use of a micelle and precipitation in the prepurification process allows rapid separation of paclitaxel from interfering compounds and dramatically reduces solvent usage compared to alternative methodologies. This prepurification process serves to minimize the size and complexity of the HPLC operations for paclitaxel purification. This process is readily scalable to a pilot plant and eventually to a production environment where multikilogram, quantities of material are expected to be produced. As much as possible, the process has been optimized to minimize solvent usage, complexity, and operating costs. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.