Effects of three treatments of 50 mg l(-1) fungal elicitors (F-5), 50 mg l(-1) salicylic acid (SA) and 50 mg l(-1) F-5 + 50 mg l(-1) SA were studied on membrane-lipid peroxidation. Peroxidase (POD), glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDH) and taxol production in cell suspension cultures of Taxus chinensis were investigated. The results showed membrane-lipid peroxidation caused by fungal elicitor F-5, prepared from fungus isolated the inner bark of T. chinensis, was decreased by the addition of salicylic acid, even if the latter also induced cell membrane-lipid peroxidation. F-5 + SA resulted in improving the activity of POD and G6PDH compared to single F-5 treatment, and achieved the greatest taxol production of 11.5 mg l(-1), being 1.5, 2.3 and 7.5 times higher than that of F-5, SA and the control. By analysis of membrane-lipid peroxidation, POD and G6PDH activity, the reason combined treatment F-5 and SA improved taxol production was reduction of membrane-lipid peroxidation induced by F-5. The studies showed that treatment of F-5 + SA on T. chinensis cultures not only gained more biomass than single F-5 treatment, but also achieved the highest taxol production.