A chemical method for the unambiguous elucidation of axial chirality in naphthylisoquinoline alkaloids such as dioncophylline A (la) is described. It involves synthetic connection of the stereogenic axis to be investigated with the stereocenters present in the same molecule. The resulting macrocyclic ansa compound ?c is formed in high yield, yet exclusively for only one of the two atropodiastereomers (4c), the other isomer (4b) does not cyclize at all. This cyclization behavior fully confirms the stereostructure l a of dioncophylline A, as postulated by us earlier. For an interpretation of the striking atropisomer specificity of this ring closure reaction, computerassisted theoretical investigations on the molecular geometries and thus thermodynamical properties of both of the imaginable cyclization products ? b/c have been performed by using force-field (MM2, MMX) and semiempirical methods (AM1). The optimized structures show the obtained macrocycle ?c to be a nonstrained, stable compound, whereas the other possible product ?b (which definitely is not formed) should be severely distorted.Dioncophylline A*) (previously "triphy~phylline"~)) is one of the major alkaloid^^-^) isolated from the carnivorous ' ) tropical liana Triphyophyllum peltatum. For this interesting naphthylisoquinoline alkaloid, Bruneton et al. 3s) have proposed the gross structure 1, correctly establishing the relative configuration at C-1 and C-3 as trans, but incorrectly assigning the absolute configuration to be 1S,3S, and with complete neglect of the stereochemistry at the biaryl linkage, which gives rise to additional, rotational isomerism.We have recently isolated, structurally reinvestigated2), and synthesized 8, dioncophylline A, and could finally establish the complete stereostructure of this alkaloid as 1 a. The constitution and the relalive configuration at the stereogenic centers (C-1 and C-3) could be confirmed mainly by NMR evidence'), and according to our first total synthesis8) the absolute configuration clearly proved to be 1R,3R. The absolute configuration at the biaryl linkage could be established') by application of the exciton split chirality method'), namely from the positive sign of the first Cotton effect of the fully aromatic naphthylisoquinoline 2a obtained by 0-methylation of 1 a and subsequent dehydrogenation under mild conditions.With respect to the many structures of naphthylisoquinoline alkaloids") that are not sufficiently established, or even obviously wrong, we wished to look for additional, independent procedures for the reliable elucidation of the