a-Isosparteine was originally isolated from Cytisus scoparius. It was isolated from two other legumes, Lupinus caudatus Kell. and Genista tinctoria L. a-Isosparteine exhibits basically the same action as does (-)-sparteine but possesses a more rapid onset and a shorter duration when compared using rat myocardial tissue. male Sprague-Dawley rats were found to metabolize sparteine and a-isosparteine to lupanine and alpha-isolupanine respectively in vivo. a-Isosparteine elicits intense interest because of its deployment as uniquely effective chiral ligand in a wide variety of metal-mediated enantioselective synthetic methods.