Phytochemical investigation of Chioccoca alba afforded three new iridoids, alboside I, alboside II and alboside III, and a new seco-iridoid alboside V. Alboside IV showed moderate activity towards the DNA repair-deficient mutant RS321 of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The structural elucidation of the new compounds was performed by ES-MS and by 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopic methods. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.