Some 70 local authorities in the Netherlands are to start collecting yew tree clippings to be used in chemotherapy, the AD reports on Friday.

One cubic metre of yew tree clippings are needed for every treatment. The waste will be collected in special bins and shipped to Belgium to be dried and then on to China for processing, the AD says.

Belgium has been collecting yew clippings for some time. Last year 400 councils collected 7,400 cubic metres of yew – enough for 7,400 treatments.

Gardens

Some 50% of the medicine used in chemotherapy comes from the ordinary yew – Taxus Baccata – which is found in many Dutch gardens, the AD says. Treatment used to be confined to a rare American tree, Taxus brevifolia, until researchers discovered the common yew has the same properties.

Cancer expert Jan Schellens told the paper a 30-metre hedge will provide 18 grammes of the active ingredient needed for one chemotheraphy session.

Only the first year’s growth contains the needed baccatine III compound and the clippings also have to be kept free of dirt and other contaminents.

‘Since I’ve been collecting clippings, I’ve realised why chemotherapy is so expensive,’ Frank Kleintjes, from gardening company Stolk Medicinal Plants, told the paper. ‘Clipping the plant takes a lot of time and manpower and delivers just a few milligrams.’