La³⁺, a kind of rare earth element, was used as an abiotic elicitor on stimulating taxol production by Taxus chinensis suspension cultures. The effects of various concentrations (0.5-10 mg/L) of La³⁺ and the elicitation time on taxol production were studied in detail. The greatest accumulation of taxol was occurred when La³⁺ was added to cultures at a concentration of 2.5 mg/L on day 12 of the culture cycle, but cell growth was thereby arrested. Combination of adsorbing taxol with organic phase (olic acid), the secretion of taxol improved greatly from about 10.3% extracellular to 63.7%. The taxol productivity was enhanced to 14.2 mg/L, about 5.4 fold of the control value.