Recently we have isolated several members of a family of exquisitely potent antitumor antibiotics from Actinomadura verrucosospora, strain H964-62 (BBM-1675, ATCC 39334).1) The producing organism was collected at Pto Esperanza, Misiones, Argentina, consequently we have named these compounds esperamicins. The recent appearance of several patents and papers describing what appear to be related compounds prompts us to report the physicochemical properties of esperamicins A, (1),A2 (2), and A,, (3) as well as the partial structure of esperamicins A, and A2.2,I)