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Content: The anxiolytic effect of magnolia has been relied upon in production of a commercial product called Sublimiss, made from magnolia bark extract, and described as a substitute for kava (an anxiolytic) and St. John's Wort (an antidepressant). Magnolia bark also contains a small amount of alkaloids, mainly benzylisoquinoline alkaloids-magnoflorine, magnocurarine, and salicifoline, with traces of oxoushinsunine, anonaine, michelabine-but these alkaloids are not considered important to the clinical actions. They make up only about 1% of the bark, with magnocurarine, the most potent of the alkaloids, at less than 0.1% in most commercial samples (12). The alkaloids may confer some of the antispasmodic effect of magnolia bark when used in high dose decoctions to alleviate bronchiole spasms and intestinal spasms. Magnocurarine was investigated as a potential muscle relaxant drug in Japan (13). A recent evaluation indicates that magnocurarine comprises about 0.2% or less of the commercial magnolia bark (14; see Table 2 and Figure 2). A substitute sometimes used in China for magnolia bark (houpu) is tuhoupu, from species of Manglieta. These are plants closely related to magnolia; the bark of some Manglieta species grown in certain areas has considerably more of the magnocurarine than the magnolia bark routinely traded (14, 15).