Daphnane diterpenoids usually embrace a 5/7/6-tricyclic ring system with poly-hydroxyl groups located at C3, C4, C5, C9, C13, C14, C20 and some special ones have a characteristic orthoester motif located at C9, C13, C14. The daphnane diterpenoids can be categorized into daphnetoxins, 12-hydroxydaphnetoxins, 1-alkyldaphnanes, resiniferonoids, genkwanines and rediocides, based on the oxygen containing functions at rings B and C, as well as the substitution pattern of the ring A. Besides, some daphniphyllum alkaloids are qualified with daphnane and seco-daphnane skeletons. Up to now, more than 100 daphnane diterpenoids have been isolated from Thymelaeaceae and Euphorbiaceae. Their structures have been determined on the basis of chemical correlation, NMR, X-ray diffraction, IR and other spectral analysis. The in-vitro and in-vivo experiments of these compounds have shown that they bear a wide range of biological activities including anti-HIV, anticancer, anti-leukemic, neurotrophic, pesticidal and cytotoxic effects. The biogenic hypothesis postulated that the daphnane-type and the tigliane type diterpenoids can be derived from a common intermediate, and that the tigliane-type can be transferred into the daphnane-type diterpenoids. There have been few papers on the total syntheses of daphnane diterpenoids owing to the synthetic challenges derived from their dense, highly oxygenated and polycyclic skeletons. However, numerous synthetic endeavors have been made in constructing core structures of daphnane diterpenoids based on various methodologies. In this paper, we focus on reviewing the synthetic efforts which have been made for daphnane diterpenoids, and we divide the main body of this paper into two parts, total syntheses and the related methodologies. The first part contains the asymmetric total synthesis of (+)-resiniferatoxin, the gateway synthesis of C6-C7-epi-yuanhuapin, and the biomimetic synthesis of (±)-methyl-homosecodaphniphyllate. The second part is classified according to the sequence of constructing the ABC core of daphnane diterpenoids, including the [X-BC-ABC] approach, the [X-AB-ABC] approach, the [AX-ABC] approach, the [CX-ABC] approach, the [A'B'C'-ABC] approach and the [X-ABC] approach. Keywords daphnane; diterpenoid; (+)-resiniferatoxin; total synthesis; synthetic methodology 1 引言 瑞香烷型二萜类天然产物主要分布在瑞香科和大 戟科植物中, 具有 5/7/6 三环骨架 1, 通常在 C3、C4、 C5、C9、C13、C14、C20 位置有羟基, 在 C9、C13、 C14 具有特定的原酸酯结构. 根据 B 环和 C 环的氧化形 式以及 A 环的取代形式, 可将已知的瑞香烷型二萜天然 产物(图 1)分为六类 [1] : daphnetoxins 2、12-hydroxydaphnetoxins 3、1-alkyldaphnanes 4、resiniferonoids 5、 genkwanines 6 和 rediocides 7; 其中, daphnetoxins 通常 在 A 环具有 α-β 不饱和酮结构, 且 B 环具有 C5β 羟基、 C20 羟基、C6α-C7α 环氧结构; 12-hydroxydaphnetoxins 相对于 daphnetoxins 在 C12 处多一个含氧官能团 OR, 并 且 OR 通常为酰氧基; 1-alkyldaphnanes 通常具有饱和的 A 环, 并且原酸酯烷基链末端和 A 环 C1 之间具有一个 大环; resiniferonoids 相对于 daphnetoxins 而言, A 环具有 α-β 不饱和酮结构, B 环 C5 为亚甲基且 C6-C7 之间为双 键, C20 为羟基或者酰氧基; genkwanines 通常在 B 环 C6-C7 之间具有双羟基, 并且饱和 A 环 C3 以及 B 环 C20