“…According to previous phytochemical studies (Freitag et al, 1967;Spengel et al, 1967;Boada et al, 1984;González et al, 1985;Trujillo et al, 1990) these three Isoplexis species mainly produce glycosides derived from 5a-configured cardenolides [uzarigenin (1)] or from the unsaturated analogues of these steroids [xysmalogenin (3) and canarigenin (4)]. Together with these, 5bcardenolides [digitoxigenin (2) and/or gitoxigenin derivatives] have been found in I. chalcantha (González et al, 1985;Trujillo et al, 1990) and I. isabelliana (Freitag et al, 1967), but such secondary metabolites have never been reported in I. canariensis Boada et al, 1984).…”