Irradiation of the berberinephenolbetaine [1] effected valence tautamerization to five 8,14-cycloberbine[21, which was converted to the spirobenzylisoquinolines by regioselective C-N bond cleavage A variety of ring systems such as compounds [4], [5] and [6] were introduced by the structural modification of berberinephenolbetaine.