The Action and Clinical Use of Ephedrine

Ma huang (Ephedra vulgarisvar.helvetica, familyGnetaceae) has been known in Chinese medicine for some 5,100 years.¹It was one of the drugs tasted by Emperor Shen Nung (about 3200 B. C.). The Chinese use it as a diaphoretic, circulatory stimulant, antipyretic, sedative in cough, etc., and it has been incorporated into many famous prescriptions, including one for typhoid. The plant (fig. 1.) is a low, practically leafless shrub, about 60 to 90 cm. high, which is sold freely in the vicinity of Peking. According to reports, it is indigenous to the sea coast and to the provinces of Chihli, Szechuan, Kansu, Shensi, Honan, Shantung and Kiangsu. It also grows in central Europe. Ephedrine, the alkaloidal active principle, was first isolated in an impure form from the stems of ma huang in 1885 by G. Yamanashi,²working at the Osaka Experimental Station in Japan, and using the