Ephedra To Pump Your Adrenaline Up !

Ephedra refers to the plant Ephedra sinica. E. sinica, known in Chinese as ma huang (麻黃; pinyin: má huáng), has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for 5,000 years for the treatment of asthma and hay fever, as well as for the common cold. Several additional species belonging to the genus Ephedra have traditionally been used for a variety of medicinal purposes, and are a possible candidate for the Soma plant of Indo-Iranian religion. Native Americans and Mormon pioneers drank a tea brewed from an Ephedra, called Mormon Tea.

In recent years, the safety of ephedra-containing dietary supplements has been questioned by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, and the medical community as a result of a high rate of serious side effects and ephedra-related deaths. In response to accumulating evidence of adverse effects and deaths related to ephedra, the FDA banned the sale of ephedra-containing supplements on April 12, 2004. A suit by an ephedra manufacturer was upheld by a Federal District Court judge in Utah on April 14, 2005. The FDA appealed this ruling, and on August 17, 2006 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit upheld the FDA's ban of ephedra.As of June 2007, the sale of ephedra-containing dietary supplements remains illegal in the United States due to their health risks.

Effects and uses

Ephedra is both a stimulant and a thermogenic; its biological effects are due to its ephedrine and pseudoephedrine content. These compounds stimulate the brain, increase heart rate, constrict blood vessels (increasing blood pressure), and expand bronchial tubes (making breathing easier). Their thermogenic properties cause an increase in metabolism, evidenced by an increase in body heat.

In traditional Chinese herbology, E. sinica is included in many herbal formulas that treat cold and flu such as 麻黃湯 ma huang tang (ephedra decoction) or 麻杏石甘湯 ma xing shi gan tang (ephedra, apricot kernel, gypsum, and licorice decoction). Ephedra is used therapeutically as a diaphoretic to help expel exterior pathogens and regulate the proper functioning of the lungs.

Ephedra is widely used by athletes, despite a lack of evidence that it enhances athletic performance. Ephedra may also be used as a precursor in the illicit manufacture of methamphetamine.

Ephedra has also been used for weight loss, sometimes in combination with aspirin and caffeine. Some studies have shown that ephedra, when taken in a regulated and supervised environment, is effective for marginal short-term weight loss (0.9kg/month more than the placebo), although it is unclear whether such weight loss is maintained. However, several reports have documented the large number of adverse events attributable to unregulated ephedra supplements.

Side effects of ephedra may include severe skin reactions, irritability, nervousness, dizziness, trembling, headache, insomnia, profuse perspiration, dehydration, itchy scalp and skin, vomiting, hyperthermia, irregular heartbeat, seizures, heart attack, stroke, or death.

Use in sports

Ephedrine is listed as a banned substance by both the International Olympic Committee and the World Anti-Doping Agency. The U.S. National Football League banned players from using ephedra as a dietary supplement in 2001 after the death of Minnesota Vikings offensive tackle Korey Stringer; ephedra was found in Stringer's locker and was believed by some to have contributed to his death.The substance is also banned by the National Basketball Association. Nonetheless, ephedra remains widely used by athletes; a 2006 survey of collegiate hockey players found that nearly half had used ephedra in the belief it would enhance athletic performance.

Purity and dosage

There are no formal requirements for standardization or quality control of dietary supplements in the United States, and the dosage of effective ingredients in supplements may vary widely from brand to brand or batch to batch. Studies of ephedra supplements have found significant discrepancies between the labeled dose and the actual amount of ephedra in the product. Significant variation in ephedrine alkaloid levels, by as much as 10-fold, was seen even from lot to lot within the same brand.

Safety and regulatory actions in the United States

Escalating concerns regarding the safety of ephedra supplements led the FDA to ban the sale of ephedra-containing supplements in the United States in 2004. This ban was challenged by supplement manufacturers and initially overturned, but ultimately upheld.

info : wikipedia

Herbal Plant : Willows

Willows Plant use as an Antipyretic

Willows (Salix) are a genus of around 400 species of deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Some of the shrub and smaller tree species may also be known by the common names osier and sallow; the latter name is derived from the same root as the Latin salix. Some willows, particularly arctic and alpine species, are very small; the Dwarf Willow (Salix herbacea) rarely exceeds 6 cm in height, though spreading widely across the ground.

Willows are very cross-fertile and numerous hybrids occur, both naturally occurring and in cultivation. A well known example is the Weeping Willow (Salix × sepulcralis), very widely planted as an ornamental tree, which is derived from hybridisation between the Chinese Peking Willow and the European White Willow.

Medical Use

The leaves and bark of the willow tree have been mentioned in ancient texts from Assyria, Sumer and Egypt as a remedy for aches and fever, and the Greek physician Hippocrates wrote about its medicinal properties in the 5th century BC. Native Americans across the American continent relied on it as a staple of their medical treatments.

Willow is used to treat headache and as an antipyretic due to the content of salicylic acid

In 1763 its medicinal properties were observed by the Reverend Edward Stone in England. He notified the Royal Society who published his findings. The active extract of the bark, called salicin, was isolated to its crystalline form in 1828 by Henri Leroux, a French pharmacist, and Raffaele Piria, an Italian chemist, who then succeeded in separating out the acid in its pure state. Salicin is acidic when in a saturated solution in water (pH = 2.4), and is called salicylic acid for that reason.

In 1897 Felix Hoffmann created a synthetically altered version of salicin (in his case derived from the Spiraea plant), which caused less digestive upset than pure salicylic acid. The new drug, formally Acetylsalicylic acid, was named aspirin by Hoffmann's employer Bayer AG. This gave rise to the hugely important class of drugs known as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).

Other uses

Uses as a plant

Agroforestry, Biofiltration, Constructed wetlands, Ecological wastewater treatment systems, Hedges, Land reclamation, Landscaping, Phytoremediation, Streambank stabilisation (bioengineering), Slope stabilisation, Soil erosion control, Shelterbelt & windbreak, Soil building, Soil reclamation, Tree bog compost toilet, Wildlife habitat

Uses as energy source

Charcoal, Energy forestry such as the Willow Biomass Project

Uses of wood

Basket weaving, Box, Brooms, Cricket bats, Cradle boards, Chairs & furniture, Dolls, Fish traps, Flutes, Poles, Sweat lodges, toys, turnery, tool handles, Veneer, Wands, Wattle fences, Wattle and daub, whistles

Uses of wood-derived products

Fibre plants, Paper, Rope and string, Tannin

• As part of the four species used on the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.
• Living Willow Sculpture

Herbal Plants : California Poppy

California Poppy to treat Toothache

The California poppy (Eschscholzia californica) is native to grassy and open areas from sea level to 2,000m (6,500 feet) altitude in the western United States throughout California, extending to Oregon, southern Washington, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and in Mexico in Sonora and northwest Baja California.

It can grow 5–60 cm tall, with alternately branching glaucous blue-green foliage. The leaves are ternately divided into round, lobed segments. The flowers are solitary on long stems, silky-textured, with four petals, each petal 2-6 cm long and broad; their color ranges from yellow to orange, and flowering is from February to September. The fruit is a slender dehiscent capsule 3-9 cm long, which splits in two to release the numerous small black or dark brown seeds. It is perennial in mild parts of its native range, and annual in colder climates; growth is best in full sun and sandy, well-drained, poor soil.

It grows well in disturbed areas and often recolonizes after fires. In addition to being planted for horticulture, revegetation, and highway beautification, it often colonizes along roadsides and other disturbed areas. It is drought-tolerant, self-seeding, and easy to grow in gardens.

History & Uses

Eschscholzia californica was the first named member of the genus Eschscholzia, which was named by the German botanist Adelbert von Chamisso after another botanist, Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz, his friend and colleague on Otto von Kotzebue’s scientific expedition to California and the greater Pacific in the early 19th century.

The California poppy is the California state flower. It was selected as the state flower by the California State Floral Society in December 1890, winning out over the Mariposa lily (genus Calochortus) and the Matilija poppy (Romneya coulteri) by a landslide, but the state legislature did not make the selection official until 1903. Its golden blooms were deemed a fitting symbol for the Golden State. April 6 of each year is designated "California Poppy Day."

Horticulturalists have produced numerous cultivars with various other colors and blossom and stem forms. These typically do not breed true on reseeding.

A common myth associated with the plant is that cutting or otherwise damaging the California poppy is illegal because it is a state flower. There is no such law. There is a state law that makes it a misdemeanor to cut or remove any flower, tree, shrub or other plant growing on state or county highways, with an exception for authorized government employees and contractors (Cal. Penal Code Section 384a).

California poppy leaves were used medicinally by Native Americans, and the pollen was used cosmetically. The seeds are used in cooking.

Extract from the California poppy acts as a mild sedative when smoked. The effect is far milder than that of opium, which contains a different class of alkaloids.

The Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve is located in northern Los Angeles County, California. At the peak of the blooming season, orange petals seem to cover all 1,745 acres (7 km²) of the reserve.

info : wikipedia