Quinoline and its derivatives display a wide spectrum of bi- ological activities such as antimalarial, antibacterial, antidiabet- ic, and anti-inflammatory1,2 behaviour. Furthermore cytotoxic agents like benzo[5,6]pyrrolizino[1,2-b]quinolines,3 antitumor agents like camptothecin4 also contain the quinoline nuclei. The benzo[5,6]pyrrolizino[1,2-b]quinoline system which dis- plays potent in vitro cytotoxic activity against MCF7 cell is syn- thesized using the Friedländer ...