The Rhoeadine-Papavermbine alkaloids constitutes a small family of natural products, elaborated almost exclusively by the Papaver genus; many of the members of this family have potentially useful biological activity.'In 1982, Ahmad and Snieckus2 reported a convergent entry into the rhoeadan skeleton and a formal total synthesis of (f)-cis- alpinigenine (1) and the related (*)-cis-alpinine (2), using bromolactone 3 as key ...