Determine of extraction conditions for paclitaxel in hazelnut shell

Cancer is one of the most important health problems of our time. Paclitaxel, which has a very high antitumor activity, is also the most important chemotherapy drug used against cancer. Paclitaxel is a natural and very important anticancer drug and is currently being used directly in combination with several chemotherapeutic compounds in the treatment of ovarium, breast, stomach, head, neck and small cell lung cancers. This substance is one of the five most commonly used chemotherapy drugs in the world. Paclitaxel, used in the treatment of cancer, is a diterpene alcoholoid and is produced from the pacific birch plant. The paclitaxel substance is found in the extracts of the tree bark of Taxus brevifolia. The paclitaxel obtained from the yew tree is also found in the hazelnut shell as a result of research. extraction of paclitaxel is aimed using hazelnut husk, which is released as approximately 300 thousand tons every year in our country and utilized as waste, although it is less compared to that of the yew tree; high enough, nonetheless. Taking into consideration the fact that it is very low in cost and other situations, hazelnut hard shell increases the importance of paclitaxel. In the studies, after drying and grinding of hazelnut shell, extractions were done by testing different solvents, different ratios and different durations. As a result of extractions, the best yields were obtained from experiments in which 100 % ethanol was used as solvent for 24 hours at room temperature. Keywords: Extraction, Hazelnut hard shell, Cancer, Paclitaxel.