The synthesis of dl-elaeokanine-A and dl-elaeokanine-C is described by an approach which utilizes a nitrone cycloaddition to generate a B-aminoketone, which upon annulation produces one or the other of the title alkaloids depending upon conditions. We wish to describe herein a synthetic entry into the Elaeocarpus family of alkaloids, a relatively new class of indolizidine alkaloids isolated from the leaves of large, spreading trees indigenous to New Guinea and India. "* Some of the more common members of this class of alkaloids include elaeocarpine (&), isoelaeocarpine (2_), and isoelaeocarpicine (a), representative of the aromatic Elaeocarpus alkaloids. The leaf alkaloids derived from Elaeocarpus kaniensis Schltr., a large tree found in the rain-forests of New Guinea, contains none of the more connnon indolizidine alkaloids (e.g., 1, 2, or 2). Instead, the less complex, but 3 4 5 obviously biogentically and chemically related, alkaloids elaeokanine-A (4) and elaeokanine-C (3) are representative of the alkaloidal composition. 3 As part of our synthetic objective to construct a number of these systems with a common synthetic design, we initially chose to attack the nonaromatic alkaloids