Sternbergia lutea Ker-Gawl (Amaryllidaceae) is known to contain the alkaloids lycorine, galanthine, hippeastrine, tazettine, galanthamine, and haemantidine (1). We now report the Occurrence of the rare compound, hippamine (2) as a minor component of the alkaloid mixture. Previously, it had been only isolated in very low yield (0.002 1%) from an unidentified Hippeastrum species (3).As shown by hplc analysis of acid extracts of the bulbs carried out using the chromatographic conditions reported for the assay of lycorine (4), a very low level of hippamine (0.0015%) is present in the plant.According to the present understanding of lycorine biosynthesis (5), hippamine represents the product of a shunt reaction. As regards biological activity, when tested at a standard concentration of 20 kM, hippamine proved to be a slightly less effective inhibitor (58%) ofascorbic acid biosynthesis in potato tubers than is lycorine (80%) (6).