Eight men in east China's Zhejiang Province were jailed for illegally logging and selling eight wild yews under national key protection, a local court ruling said Tuesday.

Under the leadership of a man surnamed Chen, they allegedly logged and sold eight wild Taxus chinensis, a species of yew, or Chinese yew, from September 2005 to August 2008, said a ruling issued by Longquan Municipal People's Court.

The yews had a volume of 19 cubic meters.

Chen was sentenced to eight years in jail and fined 30,000 yuan (4,392 U.S. dollars). The other seven were sentenced to prison terms ranging from one to eight years, the ruling said, without giving details.

Logging the Chinese yew was permissible only with approval from forestry authorities and felling more than five Chinese yews was a major crime, the ruling said.

The Taxus chinensis is an endangered plant which has existed for 2.5 million years. It produces few seeds and survives only in warm, moist areas.

Large numbers of the tree have been felled to extract taxol, which is used to treat breast, lung and ovarian cancers. A gram of taxol is worth more than 200,000 U.S. dollars.

(Xinhua News Agency August 25, 2009)