semi synthetic or total synthetic reaction mixture may be dissolved prior to loading onto the column for example the mixture may be dissolved using an organic solvent or by other means known to those having ordinary skills in the art a preferred organic solvent mixture comprises acetone acetic acid the dissolved mixture may then be loaded onto a column packed with an appropriate amount of pbs resin solvents eluants useful in this invention may be selected by reference to the standard practices of chromatography typically a moderately polar organic solvent such as acetone ethyl acetate tetrahydrofuran or acetonitrile may be used as eluant other ketones ethers and esters containing 1 5 carbons may be used as well modifiers to the eluant may include more polar solvents such as lower alcohols acetic acid and water if the mixture contains more polar taxanes as well as less polar organic solvents such as alkanes and halogenated hydrocarbons if the mixture contains less polar taxanes the percentages of the modifiers may be 0 100 depending on the nature of the mixture to be purified this percentage can be readily determined by those skilled in the art in another embodiment the taxus extract mixture or crude reaction mixture may be dissolved in an organic solvent comprising ethyl acetate thf to form a taxane solution the taxane solution may be stirred with mild heating and then vacuum filtered to remove impurities and debris therefrom the crude taxane solution may also be diluted in an organic solvent preferably a etoac thf solution the solution may be injected and or loaded onto.