the mother liquor ml 3a was discarded the head fraction hf 3a was dissolved in 50 ml of boiling acetone and the solution was cooled to 11 u00b0 c the resulting head fraction hf 4 yielded 1 9 grams u03b1 d 28 5 6 u00b0 c 1 06 meoh the mother liquor ml 4 was discarded the head fraction hf 4 was dissolved in 25 ml of boiling acetone and the solution was cooled to 11 u00b0 c the head fraction hf 5 yielded 0 4 grams u03b1 d sup 28 12 7 u00b0 c 1 06 meoh the mother liquor ml 5 was discarded the head fraction hf 5 was dissolved in water treated with excess 1n sodium hydroxide the product was extracted into chloroform and the chloroform extracts were washed with water and dried over potassium carbonate evaporation gave a solid which was crystallized from a mixture of benzene and ethanol giving 200 mg of needles molindone m p 151 5 u00b0 152 u00b0 c u03b1 d 27 138 u00b0 c 1 027 1 n hcl the compound of the present invention displays central nervous system activity and in particular shows useful psychotherapeutic activity as an antidepressant agent especially useful for agitated depressives the activity of this compound has been demonstrated in the following laboratory.