Ephedra (also known as Ma huang, Chinese Ephedra and epitonin) is the worlds oldest medicine. The Chinese discovered ephedra more than 5000 years ago. Research has shown that ephedra increases metabolism and helps promote weight loss, relaxes the air passages in the lungs to help treat asthma and cough, promotes perspiration to help a person recover from a minor cold and helps promote urination to help relieve edema. It was probably not used for weight loss until modern, food abundant times
Ephedra has been widely researched for its thermogenic (fat burning) properties. Research has show that ephedra helps promote the loss of fat while helping spare lean muscle tissue, a highly sought-after property that prescription diet medications still have not been able to reproduce.