<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p> Ralstonia (formerly Burkholderia or Pseudomonas) solanacearum ATCC 11696 - a plant deleterious bacterium - was shown to produce under iron limited conditions of growth an iron complexing compound which facilitated iron uptake into iron-starved cells. The structure of the siderophore was elucidated as 4-[[(3-acetylhydroxyamino)-propyl]amino]-2-[2-[[3-(acetylhydroxyamino)-propyl]amino]-2-oxoethyl]-2-hydroxy-4-oxo-butanoic acid, a compound known under the trivial name of schizokinen. Its partially cyclized form, schizokinen A , could also be isolated from the R. solanacearum culture supernatant and was characterized.