Various plant species of the genus Ficus(Moraceae) have medicinal uses in folk medicine (1). The phytochemical investigation of some of these species resulted in the isolation of flavonoids, triterpenes, and alkaloids (2). We have previously reported the isolation and structure elucidation of alkaloids from F. septicci (3) and flavonoids from F. adenosperina and F. pachyrhachis and biological activity of different Ficus species extracts (4). In a continuation of our study of biologically active metabolites from Papua New Guinean (P. N. G.) plants, we investigated the alkaloid content of the F. pack yrhachis leaves. The leaves were collected in April 1991, 40km WSW of Lae, Morobe Province of P. N. G. Voucher specimens are deposited at the Rijksherbarium, University of Leiden, The Netherlands. The leaves were air-dried and extracted at room temperature with petroleum ether, ethyl acetate, and methanol. The alkaloid material from the lEtOAc extract was extracted into 2 % tartaric acid and, after basification with ammonia and extraction into chloroform, the isolated material was purified on a silica gel column using CH2C12- MeOH (98 : 2). This resulted in the isolation of two tetrahydrobenzylisoquinoline alkaloids, (—)-reticuline and (+)- nor-reticuline. The identification of reticuline and nor-reticuline was performed by a comparision of their spectroscopic data ('H-NMR, '3C-NMR) with those previously reported (5—9).