Ephedra (Mahuang)
| 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. |