The root of young Strychnos icaja plants is used in Equatorial Africa as ordeal poison and as an ingredient in arrow poison. Bisset recently isolated eleven alkaloids from the leaves of S. icaja, belonging to five different structural groups, but neither strychnine nor substituted strychnine derivatives were isolated. Based on this and previous investigations, it was concluded that little is known about the chemistry and pharmacodynamics of African Strychnos species and that strychnine and brucine have never been demonstrated with certainty to be present. However, our pharmacological investigation showed that none of the alkaloids isolated by Bisset could be responsible for the toxic effect of the plant. The pharmacologically active alkaloid fraction A was isolated as described in references 4 and 5 and separated into two alkaloids, A1 and A2. Alkaloid A1 was identified as strychnine (I) via UV, IR, NMR, and mass spectra, as well as mixed melting point—this is the first time strychnine has ever been proved with certainty to be present in an African Strychnos species. The second alkaloid A2, crystallized from ethanol, was determined to be a new alkaloid, 4-hydroxystrychnine (II), based on spectral data indicating a hydroxylated indole nucleus and structural similarities to strychnine.