Galanthamine bromidrate

Galanthamine bromidrate is a salt form of galantamine, an alkaloid that comes from the bulbs and flowers of narcissus – and some other genera of the Amaryllidaceae family – characterized by anticholinesterase and neurocognitive enhancing properties.

In the early time, this alkaloid was isolated from snowdrop (Galanthus spp. - another member of the same plant family), leading authors to hypothesize that the Homer’s “moly” might have been the snowdrop: Odysseus could have used it as an antidote against Circe’s poisonous drugs, making it the oldest recorded use of Galanthus.

Nowadays, it is commonly used to treat the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), thanks to its reversible and competitive inhibition mechanism on the acetylcholinesterase (AChE) enzyme, which is responsible for the breakdown of acetylcholine enhancing neurons function and so signaling.

For this reason, the therapeutic properties of galanthamine bromidrate are not related to a sort of disease-modifying ability, but rather it can improve cognition, global function activities of daily living and cognitive attitudes for a certain period of time.