Abstract
Brunsvigia radulosa Herb. is a bulbous ethnomedicinal herb, widespread from the Great Karoo northwards through the grasslands of southern Africa. Earlier workers have previously identified a total of ten isoquinoline alkaloids from this taxon, including 1-O-acetylnorpluviine which is only known from B. radulosa. The current report investigates the suggestions of earlier workers relating to the psychoactivity of the bulb constituents, and its usefulness in the traditional treatment of cancer. The identification of anhydrolycorinium chloride, the second ever isolation of this compound from a plant, supports earlier observations for antineoplastic activity of bulb and leaf extracts of B. radulosa in a mouse P-388 lymphocytic leukaemia system. In the current study, 1-O-acetyllcorine was also isolated from the bulbs.