Trifluoroethyl salicylate (TFESA), a novel salicylate derivative, was chemically synthesized and evaluated by bioassay as a potential elicitor for inducing the biosynthesis of plant secondary metabolites. A cell line of Taxus chinensis, which stably produced a high level of bioactive taxuyunnanine C (Tc), was taken as a model plant cell system. The application of TFESA to the cell cultures could significantly induce Tc biosynthesis, although the cell growth was slightly inhibited. More interestingly, Tc production was enhanced more in the presence of TFESA compared with a structure-similar well-known elicitor, salicylic acid (SA). For example, addition of 100 mu M TFESA on day 7 led to a high Tc content of 21.9 +/- 0.1 mg g(-1) (at day 21), whereas the Tc content was 14.0 +/- 0.2 and 16.7 +/- 0.3 mg g(-1) for the control and that with addition of 100 mu M SA, respectively. The results indicate that the newly synthesized TFESA can act as a powerful elicitor for secondary metabolism induction in plant cell cultures.