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Annonaceous acetogenins are a new class of promising bioactive agents that are found only in the plant family An-nonaceae. They exhibit a broad spectrum of biological activi-ties such as antitumor, immunosuppressant, antifeedant, an-tiparasitic, antimicrobial, and pesticidal effects.1) Since the first acetogenin, uvaricin, was reported in 1982,2) more than 250 of these compounds have been isolated from the family Annonaceae. Recently, cytotoxic acetogenins and alkaloids have been isolated from Annona montana MACF.3—6) As a part of our continuing studies on antitumor constituents from Chinese Annonaceae plants,7—9) the CH2Cl2 fraction of the ethanol extract of the leaves of A. montana, collected in China, was found to show significant cytotoxicity in a brine shrimp test.10) From this fraction, we have isolated four novel acetogenins, montanacins B—E (1—4). The structural deter