One of the great medicines of all time, ephedra (Ephedra sinica) has been in use for as long as 5,000 years. Known as Ma Huang in traditional Chinese Medicine, ephedra is native to Central Asia.

The compound, extracted from Ephedra sinica plants, used in traditional Chinese medicine (the plant is also known as “Ma Huang”), is a stimulant that tightens up blood vessels and opens up the ...

In 1885, Nagai isolated the stimulant ephedrine from Ephedra sinica, a plant long used in Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine. The year before, in July 1884, Sigmund Freud had published his widely-read ...