The Flora of Panama is one of the richest in the world (Schultes, 1972) as plants from South and Central America as well as from the Caribbean area can be found here. However, with the exception of research carried out by our group, the Panamanian plants have not been subjected to any form of systematic chemical or pharmacological study. As a part of our continuing interest in the unexplored National Flora, we initiated a screening program to make a preliminary selection of plants for future phytochemical studies, and to uncover new sources of phytoconstituents which may eventually be found to have biological activities. Our initial studies, reported at this time, involve screening the plant extracts for alkaloids. Plant collections were made over a period of about three years, beginning in 1973, from different parts of the country. EXPERIMENTALDrying of Plant Material. -The collected plant material was dried in a ventilated electrically heated drier at approximately 50°C. In some instances, plant material dried at room temperature was also used for making extracts. The taxonomic identity of the plant specimens was established by one of us (Mireya Correa).