Ephedra nebrodensis

Cottiglia F, Bonsignore L, Acsu L, Deidda D, Pompei R, Casu M, Floris C. New phenolic constituents from Ephedra nebrodensis. Nat Prod Res 2005 19 117-123. 

Owing to the disturbed state of China in recent years, supplies of Ephedra from that quarter have diminished and for some time were replaced by a drug of Spanish origin and later, as Spain also became involved in civil war, by supplies from India, where attentidn has been given to the five indigenous species E. intermedia Schrenk and Mayer, E. gerardiana Wall, E. nebrodensis Tineo, E. pachyclada Boiss. and E. foliata Boiss., of which the first three are of commercial importance. ... 

The world war made all these sources of supply difficult of access and stimulated interest in the possibilities of local production. Examination of a number of American species of ephedra had already shown them to be devoid of alkaloids, except for the S. American species E. andina, in which Chavezt found ephedrine, and in the United States attention has been given to the experimental cultivation of imported species, notably E. sinica and E. gerardiana a Moroccan type, E. alenda, was found to contain only ). In Australia experimental cultivation of the Indian species E. gerardiana, E. intermedia and E. nebrodensis has been tried and preliminary yields of 1-35, 1-OS and 0-98 per cent, of total alkaloids respectively have been recorded. In Russia, E. equisetina and E. intermedia are available and are considered to be worth exploitation. In Italy various local species have been found to contain mainly i -ephedrine and that in small amount, but better results are recorded for two species already referred to and which are available in Sardinia, viz. E. vulgaris Rich and E. nebrodensis. ... 

Nowadays the Ephedra species are mainly used for extraction of the active ingredient, the alkaloid (-) ephedrine. Not only the classical Chinese species E. sinica Stapf. is used, but mainly the species E.pferardiana. Wall ex. Stapf and E. major Host. =E. nebrodensis Finco), which both grow in India and Pakistan, and E. distachya L., which grows in Southern France. 

E. intermedia collected in one area and in E. gerardiana. Specimens of E. intermedia collected in other areas contained N-methylephedrine in addition, as did E. gerardiana var. sikkimensis, E. nebrodensis var. procera, an unidentified Ephedra sp., and various commercial samples of the drug Ma-Huang. The cactus Opuntia clavata has been shown to contain iV-methyltyramine. Whereas no alkaloids could be detected in a number of Thelocactus spp., seven cacti of the genus Gymnocactus were found to contain various amounts of N-methyl- -phenethylamine, in some cases accompanied by hordenine and iV-methyltyramine. ... 

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