A structured kinetic model was established to describe the process of Taxol formation in suspension cultures of Taxus chinesis var. mairei induced by an oligosaccharide from Fusarium oxysporum. In this model, the role of intracellular starch as a storage carbon source had to be taken into account. Substrate uptake, culture growth, cell respiration, and secondary metabolites, predicted by the model, agreed with those obtained experimentally. The effective factors of oligosaccharide elicitation, eta(e,j), defined as the ratio of the parameter values in the system with oligosaccharide to those in control, reflected the effects of the oligosaccharide on cell growth and Taxol production.