Western Medicine Re-Discovers the Ancient Chinese Herb Ma Huang
Overview
For over 5,000 years Chinese physicians have used the scrubby plant ma huang to treat asthma, a severe breathing condition. Ma huang is the Chinese name of the plant of the genus Ephedra, the source of the modern drug ephedrine. Introduction of the drug to scientific medicine arose from the work of Carl L. Schmidt (1893-1988) and his Chinese colleague Ko Kuei Chen (1899-?). Schmidt, a pharmacologist, became fascinated with ancient Chinese herbal medicine when he was assigned to teach at Peking University in 1922. With Chen's help, he investigated the plant, extracted the essence, and found that this extract, called ephedrine, could be useful in the treatment of asthma. In the 1920s Percy L. Julian (1899-1975) synthesized the drug.
Ephedrine gave hope to a generation of asthma sufferers, although a number of side effects began to be noted. In later years of the twentieth century ephedrine was used as a street drug for its amphetamine or upper-like qualities and in diet pills. The side effects caused many deaths, warranting the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to issue a warning about the possible dangers of using ephedrine except under very strict supervision.
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