Ephedra

Ephedra

(Ben Jing)

[synonyms] Longsha (Ben Jing), BEIXIANG, Beiyan (BIE Lu), Gougu (Guang ya).

[source] herbaceous stems of Ephedra Sinica, Equisetum Equisetum or Ephedra intermedia.

[plant morphology] 1. Ephedra Sinica, also known as Ephedra Sinica.

Herbaceous, small, shrubby, 70-30 cm tall. The woody stem creeps in the soil; the herbaceous stem is erect, yellow green, the internodes are slender, 2-6 cm long and 1-2 mm in diameter. The scale leaf is membranous, sheath like, 3-4 mm long, 1 / 3-2 / 3 connate in the lower part, surrounding the stem node, 2-lobed in the upper part, lobes acute triangular, with 2 veins in the center. The flowers are in bulbous inflorescence, dioecious, rarely monoecious; the male inflorescence is broad ovate, usually 3-5 in compound spike shape, terminal and lateral branches terminal, rarely solitary; the bracts are 3-5 pairs, leathery, marginally membranous, with one male flower in each bract; the male flower has a colorless membranous obovate tubular pseudoperianth; the stamens are 6-8, protruding out of the pseudoperianth, the anthers are oblong or obovate, forming a cluster, and the filaments are confluent It has one bundle; female inflorescence is more than single branch, oval; bracts are 4-5 pairs, green, leathery, marginal membranous, the upper pair of syncytial parts account for more than 1 / 2, and each bract has one female flower; female flower has thick shell like pseudoperianth, which surrounds ovule, and the apex of perianth extends into slender tube, 1-1.5mm long. When the female inflorescence matures, the bracts are enlarged, fleshy, red and berrylike. Seeds 2, ovate. The flowering period is May. The seed ripening period is July.

It grows in dry Highlands, hills, dry river beds or mountain fields. Distributed in Jilin, Liaoning, Hebei, Henan, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia and other places.

② Equisetum Ephedra

Small shrubs, 70-100 cm high. The woody stem is thick and erect; the internodes of herbaceous stem are slender and short, usually 1.5-2.5 cm long and 1-1.5 mm in diameter. Scaly leaves membranous sheathlike, lower 3 / 4 connate, upper part usually 2-lobed, obtuse triangular. The male inflorescence is mostly solitary, or 3-4 gathered on the node, with 3-4 pairs of bracts and about 1 / 3 connate at the base; the pseudoperianth is narrow obovate, with 6-8 stamens; the female inflorescence is solitary, often in pairs on the node, with narrow elliptic inflorescence, 3 pairs of bracts, the uppermost pair about 2 / 3 connate, ovule 1-2, integument tube 1.5-2.5 mm long, often slightly curved. When the female inflorescence matures, it is fleshy red berry like with short stalks. Most of the seeds are one, narrow and long ovate. The flowering period is from June to July. The seed ripening period is from August to September.

It grows in dry mountain area and rock crevice of mountain wall. Mainly distributed in Hebei, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Xinjiang, Western Sichuan and other places.

③ Ephedra Sinica

Shrubs, up to 1 m high. The stems and branches are stronger than those of the former two species. The herbaceous stems are opposite or whorled, often powdered. The internodes are 3-6 cm long and 2-3 mm in diameter. Scaly leaves membranous sheathlike, lower 2 / 3 connate, upper 3-lobed (sparse 2-lobed), lobes obtuse triangular or triangular. Stamens 5-8, filaments completely united, or mostly in 2 bundles; female inflorescences 3-5 or 3-5, bracts 3-5 or 3-5, bracts 2-3, integument tube 1.5-2.5 mm long The female inflorescence is red fleshy and often powdery when hot. Seeds 2-3.

It grows in sandy area, desert or dry mountain. Distributed in Jilin, Liaoning, Hebei, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Gansu, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Sichuan and other places.

The roots of the above plants (ephedra root) are also used for medicine. Please refer to the special section for details.

[collection] from August to October, the green twigs were cut or uprooted, the soil and roots were removed, and then dried in a ventilated place or until 60% dry. Place in a dry and ventilated place to prevent moisture and mildew.

(1) Herba Ephedrae

Also known as Tian Mahuang. The stem is slender, cylindrical and slightly flat, with few branches, about 1-2 mm in diameter, and usually cut into small segments of about 2-3 cm. The surface is light green to yellowish green, with fine longitudinal lines, rough feeling when touched by hand, obvious nodes, and internode length of 2.5-6 cm. There are 2 membranous scaly leaves (3 thin ones) on the nodes, about 3-4 mm in length. The upper part is grayish white, sharp, triangular, apex retroflexed, and the base is brownish red. The stem is brittle and easy to break. The cross section is slightly fibrous. The outer ring is greenish yellow and the central pith is reddish brown. The gas is slightly fragrant and the taste is slightly bitter.

② Equisetum Ephedra

The stem is slender, cylindrical, branched, slightly thinner than ephedra, about 1-1.5 mm in diameter. The surface is grassy green to yellowish green, with longitudinal edges and no rough feeling when touched by hand. The internodes are 1.5-3 cm long. There are 2 membranous scaly leaves on the node, about 1-2 mm long, with short triangle on the upper part, gray white, not curved at the tip, brown to black brown at the base, forming a tube. Others are similar to the former.

③ Ephedra Sinica

It is a slender cylinder with a diameter of 1.5-3 mm. The whole grass is yellow green. The membranous scale leaves on the nodes are 3 whorls, about 2-3 mm long. Gray white, sharp apex, internodes 2-6 cm long, rough when touched by hand.

Dry, thick stem, light green, full heart and bitter taste are the best.

It is mainly produced in Shanxi, Hebei, Gansu, Liaoning, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Shaanxi, Qinghai, Jilin and other places.

In addition to the above varieties, there are also herbaceous stems of the same genus ephedra parviflora (distributed in Sichuan, Tibet and Yunnan), ephedra Lijiang (distributed in Yunnan and Sichuan), ephedra membranaceus (distributed in Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Gansu and Qinghai), ephedra bispaniculata (distributed in Northeast and Xinchu), etc., which are also used as ephedra.

[chemical constituents] the stem of Ephedra sinica contains 1-2% alkaloids, 40-90% of which are ephedrine, followed by pseudoephedrine and trace amounts of l-n-methylephedrine, d-n-methylpseudoephedrine, l-demethylephedrine, d-demethylpseudoephedrine and ephedrine, 6% catechu tannin and volatile oil, which contains L - α - terpineol.

Ephedra equisetifolia contains 1.15-1.75% alkaloids, mainly ephedrine and pseudoephedrine. This product also contains tannin, flavonoid glycosides, dextrin, inulin, starch, pectin, cellulose, glucose and other sugar compounds, oxalic acid, citric acid, malic acid, fumaric acid and other organic acids. Ephedrine contains a lot of ephedrine, tannin, flavonoid glycosides, dextrin, inulin, starch, pectin, cellulose, glucose and so on.

Ephedrine contains 1.15% of total alkaloids (based on ephedrine) and 0.15% of wax in fresh leaves. The main components of ephedrine are eicosanol, eicosanol and Triacontanol.

[pharmacological action] 1. The action of ephedrine

First, the effect on cardiovascular system: Ephedrine has mild and lasting vasoconstriction and weak vasodilation. Therefore, ephedrine is used for nasal mucosa swelling, with long contraction and no secondary vasodilation; it can dilate coronary vessels and increase coronary flow. When combined with Pituitrin for pressor, it can overcome the coronary vasoconstriction caused by a large amount of pituitrin Contraction and cardiac depression. The pressor effect of ephedrine is slow and lasting, which can be maintained for several hours. The increase of systolic blood pressure is more significant than that of diastolic blood pressure, and the diastolic blood pressure does not decrease generally. It also has a strong excitatory effect on the heart, but repeated application, or a large dose at a time, is easy to produce inhibition; it may also disturb the heart rhythm, but it is much weaker than adrenaline; in patients with severe organic heart disease, ephedrine and digitalis are used together, it is easy to cause arrhythmia. Second, the role of the central: ephedrine with a large amount of treatment can stimulate the cerebral cortex and subcortical center, cause mental excitement, insomnia, restlessness, tremor and other symptoms, can also stimulate the respiratory center and vascular motor center, in the wake-up effect of narcotic poisoning, and can be used for paroxysmal sleep disorders. Three effects on smooth muscle: Ephedrine has a long-lasting antispasmodic effect on bronchial smooth muscle, especially when the bronchus is in spasmodic state; it can dilate the pupil, relax the gastrointestinal muscles, inhibit peristalsis, but increase the tension of the bladder sphincter, which is beneficial to enuresis; it can also excite the isolated uterus, but not to the normal uterus Women and menstrual difficulties can reduce uterine activity. Four others: Ephedrine has anti fatigue effect on skeletal muscle, can promote nerve muscle conduction inhibited by curare, can be used in the treatment of myasthenia gravis; can also cause hyperglycemia, but its effect is weak and not constant. Ephedrine and ephedrine alkaloids do not show sweating effect on normal and fever. In general, ephedrine can not induce sweating. However, when people are in a high temperature environment, the secretion of sweat is faster and more after using ephedrine 50-60 mg for 1.5-2 hours than that of ephedrine. The local skin injected with ephedrine subcutaneously does not cause special sweat secretion Therefore, the effect of ephedrine may be central. Action principle of pentaephedrine: the action of ephedrine belongs to mixed type, most of which is due to the direct action of binding with adrenergic receptor, and a small part is due to the indirect factor of promoting medium release. Ephedrine is easy to produce rapid tolerance when it is repeatedly used, and its effect is weakened rapidly. In the end, it can be completely ineffective and can recover after several hours. In the mechanism of rapid tolerance formation, there are two factors, direct and indirect. Some people used isolated rabbit aortic strips to carry out experiments. It is considered that ephedrine has other effects on aortic smooth muscle besides acting on adrenergic receptor It has also been suggested that the rapid tolerance of desoxyephedrine is related to central regulation, but the destruction of the lateral mesencephalic reticular nucleus has no effect.

② The role of pseudoephedrine

In the pressor effect, contraction of nasal mucosal blood

Chinese PinYin : Ma Huang