Antipyretic ephedra

Chinese medical practitioners in the 15th century recommended ephedra as an antipyretic and antitussive agent. Modem physicians use intravenous ephedrine for the prophylaxis and treatment of hypotension caused by spinal anesthesia, particularly during cesarean section (see Chapter 29). 

Ephedra, and other medicinal plants have been identified at European neanderthal burial sites dating from 60,000 BCE (1). Thousands of years later, Pliny accurately described the medicinal uses of ephedra. But thousands of years before Pliny, traditional Chinese healers used ephedra extracts. Chinese texts from the 15th century recommended ephedra as an antipyretic and antitussive. In Russia, around the same time, extracts of ephedra were used to treat joint pain and though recent laboratory studies confirm that ephedra might be useful for that purpose (2), additional trials and studies have not been forthcoming. In the 1600s, Indians and Spaniards in the American Southwest used ephedra as a treatment for venereal disease (3). That idea might also have had some merit, as some studies show that ephedra contains compounds with antibiotic activity called transtorines (4). Whether the transtorines will prove to be clinically useful has not been determined. 

The herb called Ma Huang has been used in China for some five thousand years in the treatment of a variety of afflictions. A Chinese dispensatory, written in A.D. 1596, states that the plant is useful as a circulatory stimulant, diaphoretic, antipyretic, and sedative in cough, all of which has been confirmed by modern observations (1). Ephedras have been employed as remedies in many other parts of the world. 

In Chinese traditional medicine, this crude drug has been used firom ancient times as a cough cure, and as an antipyretic and diaphoretic. On the other hand, the subterranean parts of Ephedra plants are used to stop sweating, as this medicine possesses a contradictory action to the above-ground parts of the same plant. 

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