Isolation and structure of pancratistatin

Pancratium littorale Jacq. Collected in Hawaii has beenfound to produce a new phenanthridone, pancratistatin, that significantly inhibits growth of the murine P388 lymphocytic leukaemia; an X-ray crystal structure determination of pancratistatin monomethyl ether (1c) was employed to assign structure (1a) to pancratistatin.