Euphorbia lathyris (Caper spurge) is a toxic and potent Chinese materia medica (T/PCMM).This study sought a method for identifying five diterpenoids (Euphorbia factors L1-L3,L7a and L8) with the spectra of UV and mass,quantifying three diterpenoids L1,L2,and L8 in crude extracts of unprocessed and processed E.lathyris seeds by liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS).The analysis was achieved on an Agilent Eclipse XDB-C18 column (4.6 mm × 150 mm i.d.,5 μm) with an isocratic elution with a mobile phase consisting of water and acetonitrile at a flow rate of 0.25 mL/min at column temperature of 30 ℃ and UV detection was set at 272 nm.An ESI source was used with a positive ionization mode.The calibration curve was linear in the ranges of 9.9-79 μg/mL for Euphorbia factor L1,3.8-30.5 μg/mL for Euphorbia factor L2,and 1.0-20.6 μg/mL for Euphorbia factor L8.The average recoveries (n=6) of three diterpenoids were 98.39％,91.10％ and 96.94％,respectively,with RSD of 2.5％,2.4％ and 2.1％,respectively.The contents of the three diterpenoids in processed E.lathyris seeds were 3.435,1.367 and 0.286 mg/g,respectively,which decreased more sharply than those in unprocessed E.lathyris seeds which were 4.915,1.944 and 0.425 mg/g,respectively.The method is simple,accurate,reliable and reproducible,and it can be applied to control the quality of unprocessed and processed E.lathyris seeds.

Euphorbia lathyris （Caper spurge） is a toxic and potent Chinese materia medica （T/PCMM）. This study sought a method for identifying five diterpenoids （Euphorbia factors LI-L3, L7a, and Ls） with the spectra of UV and mass, quantifying three diterpenoids L1, L2, and L8 in crude extracts of unprocessed and processed E. lathyris seeds by liquid chromatography/ electrospray ionization mass spectrometry （LC-ESI-MS）. The analysis was achieved on an Agilent Eclipse XDB-C18 column （4.6 mm× 150mm i.d., 5 μm） with an isocratic elution with a mobile phase consisting of water and acetonitrile at a flow rate of 0.25 mL/min at column temperature of 30 ℃ and UV detection was set at 272 nm. An ESI source was used with a positive ionization mode. The calibration curve was linear in the ranges of 9.9-79 μg/mL for Euphorbia factor Lb 3.8-30.5μg/mL for Euphorbia factor L2, and 1.0-20.6 μg/mL for Euphorbia factor LB. The average recoveries （n=6） of three diterpenoids were 98.39%, 91.10% and 96.94%, respectively, with RSD of 2.5%, 2.4% and 2.1%, respectively. The contents of the three diterpenoids in processed E. lathyris seeds were 3.435, 1.367 and 0.286 mg/g, respectively, which decreased more sharply than those in unprocessed E. lathyris seeds which were 4.915, 1.944 and 0.425 mg/g, respectively. The method is simple, accurate, reliable and reproducible, and it can be applied to control the quality of unprocessed and processed E. lathyris seeds.

Fungal genomes carry many gene clusters seemingly capable of natural products biosynthesis, yet most clusters remain cryptic or down-regulated. Genome mining revealed an unconventional paraherquonin-like meroterpenoid biosynthetic gene cluster in the chromosome of . The cryptic or down-regulated pathway was activated by constitutive expression of pathway-specific regulator gene encoded within biosynthetic gene cluster. Chemical analysis of mutant -OE: extracts enabled the isolation of four berkeleyacetal congeners, in which two of them are new. On the basis of careful bioinformatic analysis of the coding enzymes in the gene cluster, the biosynthetic pathway of berkeleyacetals was proposed. These results indicate that this approach would be valuable for discovery of novel natural products and will accelerate the exploitation of prodigious natural products in filamentous fungi.