Progress in ent-Abietane Euphorbiae Diterpene Lactones

ent-Abietane diterpene lactones are extracted from the plants of Euphorbia. Their elementary structures are four-ring diterpenes. These compounds show many kinds of biological activity, especially the anti-tumor activity. In this paper, the recent progress in this kind of compounds is reviewed in detail, including the structure-activity relationships, mechanisms and the anti-tumor activity upon multiple human tumor cell lines, the potential for the development as prospective anti-tumor drugs and the prospects of the development and the directions of the research are discussed.