Ephedra Sinica
Ephedra sinica is one of the botanical names for Ma Huang or ephedra. Other botanical names for it are Ephedra intermedia, and ephedra equisetina. Ephedra is a shrub like plant which is found in desert regions around the world. It is distributed from China, Inner Magnolia and other parts of the world. The green stems of the ephedra shrub are dried and used for medicinal purposes. The Chinese have used ephedra for over 5,000 years as a medicine for people with lung problems. The North American species of ephedra is called Desert Tea, Mormon Tea, or Squaw Tea. Other names the ephedra is known as is Chinese ephedra, Herbal ecstasy, and Epitonin. Ephedra was used for the common cold, cough, asthma, weight loss, as an energy booster, as a sports performance booster, for water retention, bronchial and lung constriction, to alleviate sweating, shortness of breath, hay fever, sinus congestion, and fever.
Ephedra was banned in the United States two times. The first time it was banned was in 2003 after the Food and Drug Administration had received over 800 reports of people suffering from heart attacks and strokes and even some deaths. These reports came in from 1994 to 2003. Ephedra was banned for a while but some people did not think Ephedra was dangerous so they compiled a petition and filed it with the courts and in 2005 the ban on ephedra was lifted. The court decided that the FDA did not have enough evidence to prove that the ephedra was dangerous if taken in small amounts. It was stated that there should not be any more than 10 mg. ephedra in the products. The FDA continued to receive reports of people having strokes and heart attacks even while taking as little as 8 mg. of ephedra. From 1997 until 2006 there were over 1,000 reports of people hospitalized because of ephedra and at least 17 deaths. The FDA then tested some of the products which contained ephedra and had the amounts of ephedra listed on the labels of the bottles. They found that some of the products contained more and some contained less ephedra than what was on the labels. Then there were some that did not include any ephedra at all. The Food and Drug Administration took their new found information back to court and ephedra was banned for the second time in the United States.
There have been a lot of people who have been compensated for their suffering from the ephedra by the companies who made the products. There are some lawsuits pending. If you have suffered from the use of ephedra or have had a family member die because of it and there is substantiated proof, you may be entitled to be compensated. There is a statute of limitations so you need to discuss it with a good lawyer in your area.
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