Taxus baccata · PhytoNexus

01 Identity and provenance

Accepted binomial: Taxus baccata
Common names: English Yew
Family (APG IV): Taxaceae
Part used: Needle, Bark
Verification tier: Tier 2 · Verified Clinical columns reviewed and a source is on record.
Reviewer note (2026 audit): Schreiber N et al. Channels 2022;16:167-77 (VA-ECMO rescue) | Wilson CR et al. (lethal dose estimates) | VERIFIED 2026 (batch 3) - synthetic analogue, application, interactions, side effects and references populated from retrieved primary/regulatory sources. Interactions labelled CLINICAL vs THEORETICAL. Marketed-formulation column intentionally blank. | DOSE

02 Constituent chemistry

Chemical class	Marker compound	Synthetic analogue in use
Taxane diterpenoids	Baccatin III Needle, Bark	Paclitaxel and docetaxel are derived from taxanes, but the POISONING is caused by taxine alkaloids, which are pharmacologically distinct - do not conflate the two.

The analogue column is what makes the interaction reasoning tractable: where a constituent has a marketed structural counterpart, the counterpart's interaction profile is the starting hypothesis for the plant.

Looking up structures and physicochemical properties from PubChem…

03 Stated application

Reported activity: Source of baccatin III for semi-synthetic paclitaxel. The plant itself has NO safe therapeutic use.
Reported adverse effects: FATAL, NO ANTIDOTE. Taxine A and B block cardiac voltage-gated sodium AND calcium channels: sodium blockade widens QRS and drives ventricular arrhythmia; calcium blockade causes bradycardia, AV block, reduced contractility and hypotension. Onset 3-4 h with nausea, vomiting, dizziness, mydriasis, weakness, seizures; initial tachycardia may progress rapidly to bradycardia, cardiac standstill and cardiogenic shock. Lethal oral dose 0.6-1.3 g leaves/kg body weight. ALL PARTS TOXIC EXCEPT THE FLESHY RED ARIL. Management is supportive - prolonged CPR, temporary pacing, and VA-ECMO as a bridge, given the long duration of cardiotoxicity.

04 Interaction matrix

Source column, verbatim: CLINICAL: conventional antiarrhythmics are largely INEFFECTIVE against taxine-induced arrhythmia. Do not assume standard ACLS drug pathways work.
Normalised onto 1 canonical drug class below.

Curated from the reviewed source

Drug class	Severity	Mechanism type	Provenance	Expected effect
Antiarrhythmics Cardiovascular	4Contraindicated	PD-additive + electrolyte-mediated	curated A	Proarrhythmia, QT prolongation, torsade de pointes, ventricular arrhythmi…	why ▾
Class mechanism. Botanicals that shift potassium or magnesium, block sodium or potassium channels, or prolong repolarisation add to class I and class III antiarrhythmic effects on an already unstable myocardium. Expected Proarrhythmia, QT prolongation, torsade de pointes, ventricular arrhythmia. Management Avoid. If unavoidable, baseline and follow-up ECG with QTc measurement plus potassium and magnesium correction. Onset rapid Evidence A - human data with a cited source Matched on “antiarrhythmics” Find evidence for this pair Map this mechanism

05 Hazard register

narrow therapeutic index - all parts toxic except the aril; no a

06 Confusable material

These entries could be mistaken for this one in trade, in the herbarium, or in a prescription. Powdered material is often indistinguishable, so the check is macroscopic, microscopic and chromatographic rather than nominal.

Taxus brevifolia

Pacific Yew

Taxaceae

Same genus (Taxus)

07 Mechanism map

Chemistry sorts to the left, pharmacology to the right. Dashed edges are predicted. Drag nodes, scroll to zoom, export at 3× for a figure.

species

chemical class

marker compound

drug class

expected effect

hazard

08 Open literature

Abstract-scoped query built from this binomial, its common names and its marker compounds, run live against Europe PMC, PubMed and OpenAlex, then ranked locally against an evidence hierarchy.

Checking openFDA spontaneous reports…

09 Isomechanistic neighbours

Species whose interaction profile overlaps this one, ranked by shared severity weight rather than by count — a shared contraindication counts for more than a shared minor signal. Practical use: these are the plants you should not stack with this one, because the mechanisms summate.

Species	Family	Shared classes	Jaccard
Digitalis purpurea Foxglove	Plantaginaceae	1	0.33
Digitalis lanata Woolly Foxglove (Grecian Foxglove)	Plantaginaceae	1	0.33
Cinchona officinalis Cinchona	Rubiaceae	1	0.33
Nerium oleander Kaner (Oleander)	Apocynaceae	1	0.33
Cascabela thevetia Yellow Oleander	Apocynaceae	1	0.33
Urginea indica Indian Squill	Asparagaceae	1	0.33

10 References and notes

Source column: Eur Heart J Case Rep 2020;4:1-6 (fatal heart block)

Eur Heart J Case Rep 2020

2020 manual

4:1-6 (fatal heart block)

manual

BibTeX for all 2 records

@article{anon2020,
  title = {Eur Heart J Case Rep 2020},
  year = {2020},
}

@article{anon,
  title = {4:1-6 (fatal heart block)},
}

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