A review.The antitumor antibiotics belonging to the tetrahydroisoquinoline family have been studied thoroughly over the past 25 yr starting with the isolation of naphthylridinomycin in 1974.The two core structures of this family are the quinone and the aromatic core.To date, 55 natural products in this family have been isolated.The tetrahydroisoquinolines include potent cytotoxic agents that display a range of antitumor activities, antimicrobial activity, and other biol. properties to be discussed below depending on their structures.These natural products are classified into the saframycin, naphthylridinomycin/ bioxalomycin, and quinocarcin/ tetrazomine families of natural products.Some of these natural products have been reviewed in the literature, but this is intended to be the most comprehensive review to date.Pertinent structural, synthetic, semisynthetic, and biol. studies reported in the open literature will be covered in this review.