Biochemical Systematics and Ecology 30 (2002) 981–984 www.elsevier.com/locate/biochemsyseco Pyrrolizidine alkaloids from three Spanish Senecio species Rafael Suau a,* , Baltasar Cabezudo b , Rodrigo Rico a , Francisco Na ´jera a , Juan Manuel Lo ´pez-Romero a , Ana Isabel Garcı ´a 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 3 August 2001; accepted 14 December 2001 Keywords: Senecio elodes; S. malacitanus; S. granatensis; Asteraceae; Pyrrolizidine alkaloids 1. Subject and source In continuation of our chemical studies on the Andalusian Flora (Valpuesta et al., 1995, 1999; Suau et al., 1998, 2002), we focused on the genus Senecio in our search for pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs). We collected three endemic species, viz. Senecio elodes Boiss. ex DC. (MGC 25920) and S. granatensis Boiss. (MGC 20646) from Sierra Nevada (Granada, Spain), and S. malacitanus L. (MGC 30068) from El Pan- tano del Agujero (Ma ´laga, Spain). Voucher specimens are deposited at the Herbarium of the Department of Botany of the University of Ma ´laga (MGC). 2. Previous work Pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) are the most characteristic secondary metabolites present in the genus Senecio (Hartmann and Witte, 1995; Abdel-Fattah, 1990). PAs are classified in two groups, viz. those with a saturated necine moiety which are non- * Corresponding author. Tel.: +34-95-213-1934; fax: +34-95-213-1941. E-mail address: suau@uma.es (R. Suau). 0305-1978/02/$ - see front matter  2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII:S0305-1978(02)00031-5