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Famous for its extreme toxicity in history, yew is a slow-growing evergreen
shrub or small tree, sporadically distributed throughout northern
temperate zones. Its beautiful tree shape make it perfectly suitable
for gardening. In front of UN headquarter there is a yew hedgerow,
and in every golden autumn the flat dark green needle leaves often
make a beautiful view with fleshy red cup-like
fruits.
在历史上以极毒著称的红豆杉是一种生长缓慢的常绿灌木或小乔木，零散分布于整个北温带。具有优美的树形和密集的枝叶，适于园艺种植。在联合国总部的前面，有一个红豆杉做成的绿篱。在每一个金秋，它扁平的深绿色的针叶和鲜红的茶杯状的果实，构成了一道美丽的风景。
In the old days, the yew tree was sacred and planted in holy sites as
an emblem of immortality by Druids and this practice was continued
with the coming of Christianity. Nowadays the ancient yews can be found in many Chinese geomantic forests and
medieval churchyards. Some of the yews are over 1,000 years
old.During the cold steel era, the best longbow is also made
from yew wood, as were magic wands.
过去，红豆杉经常被德鲁伊教团员神圣地种在一些神圣的地方，作为一种不朽的象征。在基督教的世纪里，这种行为仍然在继续。现在，这些古老的红豆杉仍然生长在中国的风水林和中世纪的寺院里。其中的一些红豆杉已经一千多年了。并且，在冷兵器时代，作为一种魔力般的权杖的最好的长弓也是由红豆杉木头做成的。
The foliage, bark, and seeds—but not the fleshy red aril –of yew
contain a mixture of alkaloids, diterpenes, ligans, tannin and resin,which
make it extremely toxic.Although its needle has been used in small doses to treat
rheumatic and urinary problems in history, it is an unsafe medicinal
plant and it must be kept in mind not to take it under any circumstances.
除了鲜红的假种皮，红豆杉的枝叶、树皮和种子中都含有生物碱、二萜类化合物、木质素、单宁和树脂的混合物，这使得它毒性异常。虽然在历史上它的叶子曾经被少量地用于治疗风湿和泌尿系统的疾病，但这是一种不安全的使用药用植物得方法。必须牢记，在任何情况下都不要食用它。
In the past twenty years, yew has attracted considerable attention due
to the isolation of the anti-tumour drug, pacltitaxel. The projected
increase of Taxol usage for both basic research and cancer
chemotherapy, coupled with its limited availability from the
protected yew resulted in one of hottest research fields of
scientific community.
在过去的二十年，由于广谱抗癌药紫杉醇的发现和分离，红豆杉属植物吸引了社会各界相当大的注意力。近年来，基础研究和医疗对紫杉醇需求的日益增长，并且其来源的日益匮乏使得对红豆杉的研究热持续不衰。
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