The circular dichroism (CD) of the naturally occurring biaryls ancistrocladine and hamatine - the most important representatives of naphthylisoquinoline alkaloids has been studied. Semiempirical all valence electron calculations using the CNDO/2S method have been applied to reproduce the experimental CD spectra of the two alkaloids with known absolute configuration at the biaryl axis. Based upon the good agreement of experimental and calculated data, a more reliable assignment of axial chirality for so far undetermined structures of natural as well as synthetic compounds may be expected.