Commercial Scale Process of Galanthamine Hydrobromide Involving Luche Reduction: Galanthamine Process Involving Regioselective 1,2-Reduction of α,β-Unsaturated Ketone

Effect of lanthanide chloride in the Luche regioselective 1,2-reduction of 1-bromo-11-formyl-nornarwedine (5) was studied. Thus, 1-bromo-11-formyl-nornarwedine (5) is reduced with sodium borohydride in the presence of lanthanide chloride to yield 1-bromo-11-formyl-galanthamine isomers (6), which is a key intermediate for the commercial production of highly pure galanthamine hydrobromide (1), a modern drug against Alzheimer’s disease.