ABSTRACT: Xylopia laevigata (Annonaceae), known locally as "meiú" or "pindaíba", is widely used in folk medicine in Northeastern Brazil. In the present work, we performed phytochemical analyses of the stem of X. laevigata, which led to the isolation of 19 alkaloids: (-)-roemerine, (+)-anonaine, lanuginosine, (+)-glaucine, (+)-xylopine, oxoglaucine, (+)-norglaucine, asimilobine, (-)-xylopinine, (+)-norpurpureine, (+)-N-methyllaurotetanine, (+)-norpredicentrine, (+)-discretine, (+)-calycinine, (+)-laurotetanine, (+)-reticuline, (-)-corytenchine, (+)-discretamine and (+)-flavinantine. The in vitro cytotoxic activity toward the tumor cell lines B16-F10 (mouse melanoma), HepG2 (human hepatocellular carcinoma), K562 (human chronic myelocytic leukemia) and HL-60 (human promyelocytic leukemia) and non-tumor
