The "new" chemosystematics: phylogeny and phytochemistry.

For almost a decade it has been acknowledged that the flowering plant dichotomy of monocotyledons and dicotyledons does not reflect the evolution of angiosperms. Despite this, conclusions in the field of chemosystematics are still drawn from, and rely on, non-phylogenetic botanical classifications such as those of Cronquist, Dahlgren and Takhtajan. In this paper the two alkaloids colchicine and camptothecin are used as examples of how phylogenetic systematics may be applied to alkaloid chemosystematics.