Ephedra sinica, Mormon’s tea, Ma huang tea
Ephedra sinica (Mormon’s tea, ma huang tea), has been used in Chinese traditional medicine for over 5000 years.
The plant is a small shrub prevalent in Asia and the Americas (pictured below).
In the developed world it is mostly known as a weight loss supplement (the now banned, infamous ephedra diet pills) and as a stimulant/performance enhancer/party drug.
Its main active ingredient Ephedrine is the basis of every legal party pill on the market.
Ephedra is the best known and most popular legal stimulant and mood-enhancer.
Effects of Ephedra: stimulant, increased focus and stamina (sometimes libido too in rare cases) + slight euphoria, extasy (MDMA) like buzz but not very strong.
The biggest drawback of Ephedra is that it can dramatically increase heartbeat and blood pressure and can make you susceptible to panic attacks.
People with high blood pressure and heart problems should not consume Epherda under any circumstances!
Irresponsible use of Ephedra is connected to a few deaths in the US so be careful.
Interesting facts about Ephedra:
Ephedra and Ephedrine was used to be marketed as legal Xtasy.
According to urban myths it is widely used by college students to study and to help students cramming for finals.
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Ephedra guide
- Ephedra sinica basics
- Buy Ephedra -US
- Buy Ephedra -Netherlands
- Ephedrine and its effects
- Ephedra’s legal status
- Ephedra – methods of consumption, preparation
- Ephedra dosage calculator
- Dangers of Ephedra
- Health benefits of Ephedra
- Ephedra, Ephedrine for weight loss, Ephedra diet pills
- Ephedra trip reports
Places to buy Ephedra
Buy Ephedra -US
You can buy Ephedra, Ephedra extract and Ephedra pills in the US (legal and over-the-counter as long it is not marketed as weight loss supplement) here:
Buy Ephedra products /shipped from the US, credit cards accepted/
It’s often out of stock. Legal high vendors have a hard time meeting the demand for Ephedra and Ephedra products, because it is the most popular legal stimulant.
If it’s out of stock try the Ephedra substitute Sida cordifolia.
Pure ephedrine is illegal to buy or sell online due to it being used in the illegal manufacture of meth (crystal meth).
Buy Ephedra -Netherlands
For more information about Ephedra and to buy Ephedra or Ephedra pills in the Netherlands go here:
Ephedra pills /shipped from the Netherlands/
– Ephedra is no longer available, only pills containing Ephedrine, beware, it’s really strong
If it’s out of stock try the Ephedra substitute Sida cordifolia.
Main active ingredient: Ephedrine, Pseudoephedrine and their effects
Ephedrine and Pseudoephedrine are the main active ingredients in Ephedra.
Ephedra tea has typically a concentration of around 1-5% and extracts usually have between 5-25%+ ephedrine concentration.
Ephedrine and Pseudoephedrine
They are stimulants, concentration aids, decongestants, appetite suppressants, and they are still used to treat hypotension (low blood pressure).
They are also CNS (central nervous system) stimulants similar to amphetamine, and they induce the release of dopamine and noradrenalin (making you feel better, the typical amphetamine like high) but the effect compared to amphetamines is less pronounced.
All in all Ephedra is a great legal stimulant with slight amphetamine like effects.
Even tough it has amphetamine like properties saying that this is “legal Ecstasy” is false advertising.
In short: Ephedra and its extracts are the best legal stimulants, which also make you feel somewhat better and they are a bit amphetamine like.
They are also pretty safe to use, if you use them responsibly and remain within safe limits (see the dosage calculator below).
The biggest drawback of Ephedra is that it can dramatically increase heartbeat and blood pressure and can make you susceptible to panic attacks.
People with high blood pressure and heart problems should not consume Ephedra under any circumstances!
Ephedra – legal status
The biggest problem with Ephedra is that a few deaths in the US (due to irresponsible use: heavy exercise in heat + dehydration + ECA (ephedrine+caffeine+aspirin stack) have made the FDA ban ephedrine containing diet pills and weight loss supplements.
The second biggest problem with Ephedra is that one of the active ingredient (Pseudoephedrine) is a precursor used in the manufacture of methamphetamine.
Meth abuse is a big problem worldwide (especially in the US).
Therefore possessing/buying/selling pure Pseudoephedrine or Ephedrine is illegal worldwide.
Some countries went so far as to make buying and selling Ephedra illegal entirely.
Let’s see a country-by-country breakdown:
| Ephedra – legal status | |
|---|---|
| USA | Ephedra tea preparation and extracts are legal to buy online,and to possess and use, but medications containing Ephedrine, Pseudoephedrine are strictly controlled, each state has different limits for these medications. Ephedra diet pills are also illegal. |
| Canada | No specific regulation against online sales since 2012, legal status of online purchases of Ephedra sinica herb and its extract are ambiguous, unregulated. |
| Croatia | illegal, only with prescription in a pharmacy |
| Finland | illegal, only with prescription in a pharmacy |
| Germany | illegal, only with prescription in a pharmacy |
| Hungary | illegal, only with prescription in a pharmacy |
| Netherlands | illegal, only with prescription in a pharmacy |
| Sweden | legal |
| UK | legal to buy online but illegal to sell within the country (prescription only) |
| Indonesia | legal |
Countries not included in the list have no information available online in English.
It might be possible, that the information is available somewhere online in the language of that particular country.
If you are from a country, which is not included and you know a place, where I can find out more about the legal status of Ephedra/Ephedra extracts, then please help out.
In case Ephedra is out of stock or not legal in your country, check the best Ephedra alternative : Country mallow.
Sources:
Wikipedia – Legal status of Ephedra in the United States of America
Wikipedia – Ephedrine – Legality
Ephedra tea and extract – methods of consumption, preparation
The most common way to consume Ephedra is to make a tea out of the dried twigs (Ephedra sinica does not have leaves in the traditional sense, the plant’s twigs act as the leaves).
Your tea preparation should look like the one on this picture:
Requires minimal amount of preparation. Can be consumed as it is (very bitter, harsh taste, unpleasant, sticks to the tongue and teeth, lingers in mount for minutes).
Ephedra extract ranges from greenish-yellow (as seen below) to yellowish-brown. The higher the potency the more brownish, yellowish and stickier it gets.
Ephedra insufflation: In theory it should be possible to snort pure Ephedrine or Pseudoephedrine – but not the extract -.
However possession/buying/selling pure Ephedrine or Pseudoephedrine is illegal, therefore there is very little data about this practice.
According to some forum posts:
Bluelight – Snorting Ephedrine
The effects are similar but faster acting.
/Ephedra extract is already pretty fast acting (5 minutes onset)./
Ephedra dosage – general formula
The dosage of Ephedrine is between 25 mg to 150 mg when used in a hospital setting (depends on age, gender, weight, height, illnesses etc…).
Use the following formula to calculate safe dosage:
(X grams) x (Y Ephedrine concentration) = Z
——————————————————–
X= grams of Ephedra or Ephedra extract
Y= Ephedrine concentration %
Z= your dose, Z should be between 25 – 150 mg (0,025 – 0,150 grams)
————————————————————–
Example:
Your Ephedra tea preparation has an Ehedrine concentration of 1% and you bought 200 grams.
200 g x 0.01 = 2 g
So, Z=2 g (2000 mg) , therefore your amount of Ephedra is enough for 13.3 strong doses for one person.
Use the following Ephedrine dosage calculator:
UPDATE: Due to a Google sheets upgrade, the embedded calculator is no longer working.
However, you can access the Ephedrine dosage calculator here (it opens in a new window).
Dangers of Ephedra
If used responsibly Ephedra tea and Ephedra extract are very safe to use as long as you don’t have any heart disease or high-blood pressure.
Ephedra raises heartbeat frequency, causes restlessness, can cause panic attack, significantly raises blood pressure and can cause excessive sweating.
/Keep in mind, that blood pressure – even very high blood pressure – is largely symptom free.
If you don’t know how high your blood pressure is or whether you have any heart problems I would suggest talking to your GP (general practitioner) and have your blood pressure measured and have your heart checked before taking any Ephedra./
Ephedra health benefits
Ephedra just like most herbal, legal highs (a.k.a entheogens) has many medical uses and has been used as a herbal remedy for various ailments for centuries.
In traditional Chinese medicine, ma huang has been used for asthma and bronchitis for centuries.
This is actually scientifically proven and it is not just anecdotal, because both ephedrine and pseudoephedrine act as bronchodilators.
Ephedrine is also used to treat low blood pressure and is sometimes given to people with chronic fatigue syndrome.
Ephedra for weight loss, Ephedra diet pills
Ephedrine promotes modest short-term fat loss, but it is ineffective in the long term*.
Animal experiments demonstrated, that ephedrine is known to stimulate thermogenesis in the brown adipose tissue, but because adult humans have only small amounts of brown fat, the possible fat loss is negligible.
According to some studies aspirin and caffeine have a synergistic effect with ephedrine with respect to weight loss*.
*Source: Handbook of Obesity – Clinical Applications
Ephedrine+Caffeine+Aspirin is known as ECA stack and is used by professional bodybuilders before competitions to get rid of the last remaining deposits of fat (coupled with strict exercise regime and with a very strict diet of course).
However, ECA stacks can be very dangerous, irresponsible use can easily lead to death.
Buy Ephedra -US
You can buy Ephedra, Ephedra extract and Ephedra pills in the US (legal and over-the-counter as long it is not marketed as weight loss supplement) here:
Buy Ephedra products /shipped from the US, credit cards accepted/
It’s often out of stock. Legal high vendors have a hard time meeting the demand for Ephedra and Ephedra products, because it is the most popular legal stimulant.
If it’s out of stock try the Ephedra substitute Sida cordifolia.
Pure ephedrine is illegal to buy or sell online due to it being used in the illegal manufacture of meth (crystal meth).
Buy Ephedra -Netherlands
For more information about Ephedra and to buy Ephedra or Ephedra pills in the Netherlands go here:
Ephedra pills /shipped from the Netherlands/
– Ephedra is no longer available, only pills containing Ephedrine, beware, it’s really strong
If it’s out of stock try the Ephedra substitute Sida cordifolia
Ephedra trip reports
The following are trip reports of ordinary people, who took Ephedra and ephedrine containing products:
“I take about 40mg of ephedra on a daily basis. This is my third year of taking it. I started taking it a year after I started smoking weed. I don’t reccommend new users to take 40mg I only do it because I’ve built tolerance to it.
I guess having all that energy, running around like a maniac, and the fact that ephedra boosts metabolism is why I’ve also managed to loose 80 pounds. Not only that but the asthma that used to plague me as a child has dissappeared as ephedra helps open up the bronchial tubes.”
Source: Erowid – Trip report
“A friend of mine started taking Ephedrine to lose weight. Having read about Ephedrine being an Amphetamine-like substance, I tried a few of the pills just to see how it would make me feel.
It gave me a nice mellow euphoria and lots of energy, so I picked up a bottle of 60 pills and started taking it before I would hit the clubs. It would give me more energy and it gives a much stronger euphoria when mixed with alcohol.”
Source: Erowid – Ephedra – Trip report
“One day I made two rather strong cups to share with my roommate, but he ended up not drinking his share so I simply drank all of it. I again noticed everything sharpen, colors and light seemed to be ‘washed out’ like someone turned the brightness up on the TV. Not super strong, not like mushrooms do, but definitely noticeable. I also notice a sort of pleasurable tightening in my head. I’m not noticing any kind of pushy stimulation or jolt of wakefulness, but I don’t feel like laying down either. I feel like if I started running, I could run forever. I feel like I can focus and pay attention to things I want to focus on. The effects so far are reminding me of kratom but slightly different.”
Source: Bluelight – Trip report
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Some of the information presented here might be outdated or incorrect (check “last updated” below). Make sure, that if you are planning to try out any of the substances to research them yourself as well.
I’m 100% committed to safe and responsible legal high consumption. If you have a few minutes to spare please read my blog post about responsible and safe legal drugs use.
Ephedra is only one of the legal highs included in Simon’s legal high guide, check out the others as well.
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Last updated: 2015. 11. 12.
hi, can i do ephedrine pills from ephedra sinica tea material raw?
Not without access to laboratory epquiment (if you meant pure ephedrine, it’s also illegal to extract pure epehedrine), but you can purchase Ephedra pills right here.
I need MA Huang ( ephedra Sinica)
For respiration condition/& asthma.
It helps me with lyme disease. Tell me where I can go to purchase MA Huang.
Thank you sincerely Mel
Right here: Ephedra pills
Is ephedrine sulfate supposed to smell weird?
I purchased some ephedra and though it looks the same, it is greenish rather than brown. When I made tea with it, it barely colors the water. There is a slight similarity in taste from the brown colored I still have left. Did I get ripped off or did I end up with fresh instead of dried?
Well, that’s the first time I have heard of something like this. I have no idea. But I would be very careful with that, it shouldn’t be green.
I live in Vietnam and I could buy ephedra stems at the local Chinese traditional medicine. Thanks for showing the Chinese ame, the old shop owner understood right away!
He told me to put a small bunch in hot water, cover the glass and wait 20 minutes before drinking. I’m waiting now!
So I guess it’s possible to find ephedra in Asian cities where they have a Chinese district