Biochemical Systematics and Ecology 30 (2002) 263–265 www.elsevier.com/locate/biochemsyseco Alkaloids from Fumaria sepium and Fumaria agraria Rafael Suau a,* , Baltasar Cabezudo b , Rodrigo Rico a , Juan Manuel Lo ´pez-Romero a , Francisco Na ´jera a a Departamento de Quı ´mica Orga ´nica, Universidad de Ma ´laga, E-29071 Ma ´laga, Spain b Departamento de Biologı ´a Vegetal, Universidad de Ma ´laga, E-29071 Ma ´laga, Spain Received 29 August 2000; accepted 21 March 2001 Keywords: Fumaria agraria; Fumaria sepium; Papaveraceae; Fumariaceae; Isoquinoline alkaloids; Chemotaxonomy 1. Subject and source The plants of genus Fumaria L., which encompasses about 40 species (Southon and Buckingham, 1989), are annual herbs which have a wide distribution from India to Macaronesia. Twenty-two species are restricted to the Ibero-Mauritanian Region, which includes Algeria, Morocco and Spain (Lide ´n, 1986). Plant material of Fumaria agraria Lag. (Fumariaceae) was collected from Churri- ana (Ma ´laga, Spain) and that of Fumaria sepium Boiss. (Fumariaceae) from Los Barrios (Ca ´diz, Spain). Both were identified by the Department of Botany of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Ma ´laga. Voucher specimens (F. agraria MGC-23062 and, F. sepium MGC-31528) are deposited in the Faculty’s herbarium. 2. Previous work F. sepium has not been studied to date, and previous investigations on isolation of alkaloids from F. agraria revealed the presence of protopine (Susplugas et al., 1957). * Corresponding author. Present address: Facultad de Ciencias, Dpto de Quı ´mica Orga ´nica, Universidad de Ma ´laga, Campus de Teatinos s/n, E-29071 Ma ´laga, Spain. Tel.: +34-952-13-19-34; fax: +34-952-13- 19-41. E-mail address: suau@uma.es (R. Suau). 0305-1978/02/$ - see front matter  2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII:S0305-1978(01)00077-1