Taxus baccata secoisolariciresinol from

Although structural elucidation of lignans is not a difficult task, the similarities between the structures can create problems. In particular, the determination of stereochemistry at the chiral center requires NOE/ NOESY NMR experiments and/or X-ray analyses. The enantiomeric excesses of the known lignans (+)-lariciresinol, (-)-secoisolariciresinol and (+)-taxiresinol, isolated from Japanese yew T. cuspidata roots, were determined by chiral high-performance liquid chromatographic analyses [78] except for (+)-pinoresinol (77% enantiomeric excess), they were found to be optically pure by Kawamura et al. In an earlier study, the presence of taxiresinol in Taxus species was reported by Mujumdar et al. [69] after they had isolated it from the heartwood of T. baccata, although they did not study its stereochemistry. 

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