Pharmaceutical Name:

Herba Ephedrae

Botanical Name:

Ephedra sinica Stapf
Ephedra equisetina Bunge
Ephedra intermedia Schrenk et Mey.

Common Name:

Ephedra
Ephedra Mormon Tea

Source of Earliest Record:

Shennong Bencao Jing

Part Used & Method for Pharmaceutical Preparations:

Herbaceous twigs or stems are collected from the Beginning of Autumn (thirteenth solar term) to Frost’s Descent (eighteenth solar term), dried in a shady place and then cut into pieces and used either raw or baked with honey.

Properties and Taste:

Pungent-spicy, bitter and warm

Meridian:

Lung and urinary bladder

Functions:

To promote diaphoresis
To pacify asthma
To benefit urination

Indications and Combinations:

1.    Wind-cold type of exterior syndrome manifested as chills, fever, headache, general pain, nasal obstruction, absence of sweating, thin, and white tongue coating and superficial and tense pulse.
*Use with Cinnamon twigs (Guizhi) in the formula Mahuang Tang.

2.     Cough and asthma sue to invasion by exogenous wind and cold.
*Use with Apricot seed (Xingren) in the formula Sanniu Tang.

3.     Edema with exterior syndrome. This disease in traditional Chinese medicine is similar to acute nephritic edema in Western Medicine.
*Use with Gypsum (Shigao) in the formula Yuepi Tang.

Dosage:

1.5-10 g

Cautions:

This herb causes heavy sweating. It should be used cautiously in deficiency conditions with sweating or asthma and cough due to failure of the kidneys in receiving Qi.