A review of the rationale and methodology for the laboratory construction of the major classes of indole alkaloid based on their known or presumed biosynthesis is presented. The experimental results obtained provide analogies for the principal condensation and rearrangement reactions uncovered in biochemical investigations in this field and suggest new incorporation experiments. The prediction and discovery of new classes of alkaloid based on the observed transformations have been made and, in turn, new theories have been developed to explain some of the hitherto unsolved problems of biotransformation and structure in this series. Finally, the suggestion is made that many of the complex structures encountered in the various families may arise through rather unspecific processes, some indeed of a nonenzymic nature. © 1974.