DOI: https://doi.org/10.24820/ark.5550190.p011.494 Page 110 © AUTHOR(S) A Platinum Open Access Journal for Organic Chemistry Review Free to Authors and Readers DOAJ Seal Arkivoc 2021, part v, 110-137 Recent advances in the synthesis of taxoids: 2015-2020 Mohamed F. El-Mansy a,b and William A. Donaldson* c a Organometallic and Organometalloid Chemistry Department, National Research Centre, 12622 Cairo, Egypt b Department of Chemistry Department of Molecular Biosciences, Center for Molecular Innovation and Drug Discovery, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208-3113 USA c Department of Chemistry, Marquette University, P. O. Box 1881, Milwaukee, WI 53201-1881 USA Email: william.donaldson@marquette.edu Dedicated to Prof. Peter A. Jacobi for his lifetime contributions to organic synthesis Received 02-17-2021 Accepted 03-27-2021 Published on line 04-20-2021 Abstract Taxol is a highly oxygenated, polycyclic diterpene first isolated from the bark of the Pacific yew tree. The impressive antitumor activity of this compound led to intense synthetic activity over the past 30 years. The first syntheses were reported more than 25 years ago, and earlier synthetic efforts have been amply reviewed. This review will focus on the literature for the period 2015-2020 including formal and total syntheses of taxol, 1-hydroxytaxinine, taxabaccatin III, and canataxpropellane. Taxol HO O OH AcO O H OAc Ph NH OH O OBz O Ph O HO OAc OAc AcO O H O O Ph 1-Hydroxytaxinine O OH OAc H H OH AcO OH Canataxpropellane Keywords: total synthesis, taxane-type diterpenes