The analysis of paclitaxel and related compounds was investigated usin
g supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC), The separation of paclitax
el and five related taxanes was compared on two SFC instruments, The t
ypical analysis lime was 20 min on system I and 4 min on system II. Ba
sed on this, SFC system II was selected for further studies and a sepa
ration of paclitaxel from fifteen of its impurities br degradation pro
ducts was achieved in about 35 min.