Galanthamine as an Amaryllidaceae alkaloid has an important role in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. Some efforts were made to elaborate the total synthesis, and hundreds of its derivatives were prepared to find a more effective molecule with advantageous properties. Moreover, almost every part of the tetracycle was changed; in members of the rings, in the nature and position of the heteroatoms, and ring-opened analogues were also synthesized. In this review the basic synthetic works and the most important derivatives and analogues are overviewed.