A first possibility to utilize elymoclavine, an alkaloid of Claviceps species which has been of no pharmaceutical interest until now, is shown: In submerged cultures different strains of Claviceps paspali were able to convert considerable amounts of elymoclavine added to the medium into simple amides of lysergic acid or free lysergic acid. Thus the capacity of the strains of this fungus to produce lysergic acid amides can be increased.An analytical procedure has been developed which allows the exact determination of the simple alkaloids by applying the culture liquid on TLC-plates and evaluating directly and quantitatively the separated chromatogram with a chromatogram spectrophotometer.