EPHEDRINE

EPHEDRINE

Ephedrine is a medication used to prevent low blood pressure during spinal anesthesia. It has also been used for asthma,narcolepsy, and obesity but is not the preferred treatment. It can be taken by mouth or by injection into a muscle, vein, or just under the skin. Onset with intravenous use is fast, while injection into a muscle can take 20 minutes, and by mouth can take an hour for effect. When given by injection it lasts about an hour and when taken by mouth it can last up to four hours.

Common side effects include trouble sleeping, anxiety, headache, hallucinations, high blood pressure, fast heart rate, loss of appetite, and inability to urinate. Serious side effects include stroke, heart attack, and abuse. While likely safe in pregnancy its use in this population is poorly studied.Use during breastfeeding is not recommended.Ephedrine works by turning on α and βadrenergic receptors.

Ephedrine was first isolated in 1885. It is on the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines, the most important medications needed in a basic health system.It is available as a generic medication. The wholesale cost in the developing world is about 0.69 to 1.35 USD per dose. In the United States it is not very expensive. It can normally be found in plants of the Ephedra type. Dietary supplements that contain ephedrine are illegal in the United States. An exception is when used in traditional Chinese medicine.

Weight loss

Ephedrine promotes modest short-term weight loss, specifically fat loss, but its long-term effects are unknown.In mice ephedrine is known to stimulate thermogenesis in the brown adipose tissue, but because adult humans have only small amounts of brown fat, thermogenesis is assumed to take place mostly in the skeletal muscle. Ephedrine also decreases gastric emptying.Methylxanthines such as caffeine and theophylline have a synergistic effect with ephedrine with respect to weight loss. This led to creation and marketing of compound products. One of them, known as the ECA stack, contains caffeine and aspirin besides ephedrine. It is a popular supplement taken by bodybuilders seeking to cut body fat before a competition. 

Agricultural

Ephedrine is obtained from the plant Ephedra sinica and other members of the Ephedra genus. Raw materials for the manufacture of ephedrine and traditional Chinese medicines are produced in China on a large scale. As of 2007, companies produced for export US$13 million worth of ephedrine from 30,000 tons of ephedra annually, 10 times the amount used in traditional Chinese medicine.

Proposed biosynthetic pathway of ephedrine from L-phenylalanine and pyruvic acid.

The four stereoisomers of ephedrine

Synthetic

Most of the l-ephedrine produced today for official medical use is made synthetically as the extraction and isolation process from E. sinica is tedious and no longer cost effective.

Biosynthetic    Ephedrine was long thought to come from 

modifying the amino acid L-phenylalanine. L-Phenylalanine would be decarboxylated and subsequently attacked with ωaminoacetophenone. Methylation of this product would then produce ephedrine. This pathway has since been disproven. A new pathway proposed suggests that phenylalanine first forms cinnamoyl-CoA via the enzymes phenylalanine ammonia-lyase and acyl CoA ligase. The cinnamoyl-CoA is then reacted with a hydratase to attach the alcohol functional group. The product is then reacted with a retro-aldolase, forming benzaldehyde. Benzaldehyde reacts with pyruvic acid to attach a 2 carbon unit. This product then undergoes transamination and methylation to form ephedrine and its stereoisomer, pseudoephedrine.

History

Ephedrine in its natural form, known as má huáng (麻黄) in traditional Chinese medicine, has been documented in China since the Han dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD) as anantiasthmatic and stimulant. In 1885, the chemical synthesis of ephedrine was first accomplished by Japanese organic chemist Nagai Nagayoshi based on his research ontraditional Japanese and Chinese herbal medicines. The industrial manufacture of ephedrine in China began in the 1920s, when Merck began marketing and selling the drug as ephetonin. Ephedrine exports between China and the West grew from 4 to 216 tonnes between 1926 and 1928.

In traditional Chinese medicine, má huáng has been used as a treatment for asthma and bronchitis for centuries.

Source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephedrine

My Opinion: Ephedrine is the best way for over weight to use for them because it can promotes modest short term weight loss, and it can prevent low blood pressure but don't over use it may cause your health