An Improved Synthesis of Amantadine Hydrochloride

Amantadine hydrochloride 1 is an antiviral drug used in the prevention and treatment of influenza A infections. It has also been used for alleviating early symptoms of Parkinson's disease. Several methods for the preparation of 1 have been reported. These procedures started with adamantane 2 using as many as four reaction steps to produce amantadine hydrochloride with overall yields ranging from 45% to 58%. In this article, we describe a two-step procedure for the synthesis of 1 from 2 via N-(1-adamantyl)acetamide 4 with an improved overall yield of 67%. The procedure was also optimized to reduce the use of toxic solvents and reagents, rendering it more environment-friendly. The procedure can be considered as suitable for largescale production of amantadine hydrochloride. The structure of amantadine hydrochloride was confirmed by H-1 NMR, C-13 NMR, IR, and MS.