Isoindolobenzazepine alkaloids, exemplified by lennoxamine 1 (Fig. 1), are a new class of alkaloids belonging to the aporhoedane series which have been extracted from Chilean Berberidaceae. 1 They are biogenetically related to protoberberines and usually ranked as isoquinoline alkaloids but their main structural feature is the presence of the distinctive isoindolo[1,2-b][3]benzazepine unit embedded in their skeleton. ... We now report an alternative, more efficient and ...