Alkaloids are a group of naturally occurring chemical compounds that contain mostly basic nitrogen atoms. This group also includes some related compounds with neutral and even weakly acidic properties. Also some synthetic compounds of similar structure are attributed to alkaloids. In addition to carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen, alkaloids may also contain oxygen, sulfur and more rarely other elements such as chlorine, bromine, and phosphorus.

Alkaloids are produced by a large variety of organisms, including bacteria, fungi, plants, and animals, and are part of the group of natural products (also called secondary metabolites). Many alkaloids can be purified from crude extracts by acid-base extraction. Many alkaloids are toxic to other organisms. They often have pharmacological effects and are used as medications, as recreational drugs, or in entheogenic rituals. Examples are the local anesthetic and stimulant cocaine; the psychedelic psilocin; the stimulant caffeine; nicotine; the analgesic morphine; the antibacterial berberine; the anticancer compound vincristine; the antihypertension agent reserpine; the cholinomimeric galatamine; the spasmolysis agent atropine; the vasodilator vincamine; the anti-arhythmia compound quinidine; the anti-asthma therapeutic ephedrine; and the antimalarial drug quinine. Although alkaloids act on a diversity of metabolic systems in humans and other animals, they almost uniformly invoke a bitter taste.

Hannes Grossmann (born 8 September 1982) is a German drummer who plays for German death metal band Obscura and for the US technical extreme metal supergroup Blotted Science. He was also the drummer during Necrophagist's Epitaph era.

Hannes Grossmann was born on September 8, 1982. He started playing the piano at the age of 8 and later moved on to what was to be his main instrument, the drum kit, at age 10.

In 2003 Hannes Grossmann began to play drums in the technical death metal band Necrophagist and later recorded drums for the album "Epitaph" in 2004 which features complex polyrhythmic drumming and blastbeats of up to 240bpm. Hannes stated in an interview on onlinedrummer.com that the drum lines were ones previously programmed by the Necrophagist guitarist, which he played in (almost) exactly the same way, which was exactly one of the reasons Hannes left Necrophagist later on. Hannes left Necrophagist in 2007 to join the re-forming band Obscura, along with his Necrophagist bandmate, Christian Muenzner, and Dutch bass player Jeroen Paul Thesseling, that has previously played in Pestilence. In 2008, Obscura were signed by Relapse Records and have gone on to release the album Cosmogenesis which was met with very positive reactions and cracked the US Newcomer Billboard. On September 28, 2010, Hannes joined the instrumental metal band Blotted Science, which features Ron Jarzombek (Spastic Ink) and Alex Webster (Cannibal Corpse). With them, he has recorded on The Animation of Entomology EP, which was released in 2011. He is also a member of Ron Jarzombek's latest musical venture Terrestrial Exiled with bandmate and countryman Christian Muenzner as well as Spastic Ink bassist Pete Perez. He was also involved in recording Christian Muenzner's solo album, Timewarp, which also features Steve DiGiorgio. To complete the list of his 2011 releases, he has recorded Obscura's second LP, Omnivium, that was, once again, met very positively by the fans and critics alike.