Rauvolfia perakensis

In the mid-1950s, A. Chatteijee and co-workers (197) isolated, initially from Rauvolfia serpentina and then from R. perakensis, an indoline alkaloid, which they called rauvolfinine and for which they claimed the structure 90 (Fig. 3). However, the data presented for structure 90 are somewhat vague and most would apply to the indoline alkaloid structure in general. It is noteworthy that other research groups have not yet been able to reisolate rauvolfinine (89). In our opinion, the observations concerning the existence and structure of rauvolfinine are erroneous. Probably, as pointed out by Taylor (1), the isolated samples consisted of impure mixtures of alkaloids, in which isoajmaline (91) may have been the main component (Fig. 4). 

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