Antiinflammatory principle of Ephedra herbs.

Since the traditional usage of an Oriental medicine "mao", consisting of Ephedra herbs, suggests that it may possess antiinflammatory activity, a crude drug preparation, the aerial part of E. intermedia, was subjected to bioassay for antiinflammatory activity by two methods. The methanol extract was found to be active. The extract was fractionated in monitoring the antiinflammatory activity, resulting in the isolation of (+)-pseudoephedrine as the active principle. The antiinflammatory effects of ephedrine analogs were determined by four assay methods ; pseudoephedrine exhibited the strongest activity in the Whittle method, the carrageenin paw edema method in mice, and the fertile egg method.