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From a single batch of R. v o m i t o r i a roots 28 alkaloids were isolated and 22 identified, the remaining 6 being in trace quantities only. Aricine, carapanaubine, carapanaubine-N-oxide, rauvoxine and suaveoline have not previously been found in the roots. The relationship of the alkaloids is briefly discussed.Rauwolfia vomitoria AFZ. is an African member of the genus which, because of its widespread distribution, became an important article of commerce as an alternative to the Indian species R. serpentina BENTH. as a source of the indole alkaloids reserpine and rescinnamine. ' During the past three decades about 40 indole alkaloids have been reported present in the plant, although many of these reports refer to compounds recovered from the mother liquors of commercial alkaloid extraction. Few reports indicate the range of alkaloids encountered in a single specimen and we have therefore investigated a sample of R. vomitoria ro,ots using more recently developed techniques of separation and identification [I, 2, 31. It is hoped later to relate the results of this work with investigations of other parts of the plant. Experimental and ResultsP l a n t m a t e r i a l s Commercial samples of R. vomitoria roots were examined and found to agree with the pharmacognostical descriptions published by EVANS [4] and CANTORIA and YOUNGKEN [5]. T h i n l a y e r c h r o m a t o g r a p h y Silica Gel G (MERCK, Darmstadt, B. R. D.). The plates (20 cm X 20 cm with layers 250 pm thick) were activated (30 minutes) at llO°C and stored in a desiccator. Downloaded by: University of British Columbia. Copyrighted material.

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