Abstract
In the course of our continuing synthetic experiments on benzoquinolizidine2 and indoloquinolizidine alkaloids3, we have recently utilized palladium catalyzed amidation4 for the synthesis of the berbine alkaloids5. In this present paper we wish to report, what we believe is the first successful utilization of the palladium catalyzed amidation for the synthesis of the hexadehydroyohimbane skeleton.