Pursuant to our interest in the distribution of alkaloids in the legume subfamily Papilionoideae (l), we have studied extracts of specimens of the two species that constitute the genus Rothia, namely, Rothia trifoliata Pers. (syn. Rothia indica L.) and Rothia hirsuta (Gwill. & Perr.) Bak. The genus Rothia is classified in the tribe Crotalarieae and is, therefore, closely related taxonomically to the genus Crotalaria, whose species commonly accumulate hepatotoxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids (2,3). In a preliminary investigation, however, R. trifoliata was found to produce the quinolizidine alkaloid lupanine rather than bases of the pyrrolizidine type (4). In the present communication, detailed quinolizidine alkaloid profiles are reported for vegetative and herbarium specimens of R. trifoliata and R. hirsuta and were established using capillary gc-ms. Esters of 13-hydroxylupanine, which were conveniently identified in this investigation by cims (5) using NH, as the reactant gas, were found to be characteristic of both species. 13C-nmr chemical shifts have been determined for four R. trifoliata constituents, 13a-angeloyloxylupanine, cinevanine, 13a-( 2 methylbutyryl)oxylupanine, and 13α tigloyloxylupanine. 13a-( 2-Methylbutyryl)oxylupanine has previously been identified only tentatively as a natural product, when present in a cell suspension culture of Lupinus polypbyllus (6). Its structure and stereochemistry were confirmed in the present investigation by catalytic hydrogenation of 13α-angeloyloxylupanine. The presence of quinolizidine alkaloids in the two Rothia species studied, as well as the concomitant absence of pyrrolizidine bases, is of chemotaxonomic importance. Prior to the present study, esters of 13-hydroxylupanine have only been reported in legume species in the tribes Sophoreae and Genisteae (7). Given the known toxic potential of quinolizidine alkaloids (7), the practice of using R. trifoliata as a vegetable in India in times of scarcity (8) is not to be recommended.