Stemmadenine is believed to be formed from preakuammicine by a carbon-carbon bond cleavage.

Cleavage of a second carbon-carbon bond is thought to form dehydrosecodine.

[1] The enzymes forming stemmadenine and using it as a substrate remain unknown to date.

It is thought to be intermediate compound in many different biosynthetic pathways[2][3][4] such as in Aspidosperma species.

Some of them are: It is also present as product in plant like in Tabernaemontana dichotoma seeds.