ammonia. The C=C in the racemic diester 19 was ozonolysed and the diketone converted by Beckmannrearrangement into the bis-lactam . Reduction of the bis-lactam with lithium aluminium hydride and intramolecular nucleophilic displacement gave racemic sparteine 1. Some ideas for making this synthesis amenable to a synthesis of enantiomerically enriched sparteine are presented.