Ephedra-how is it now???

[Guest mandragora]

l

Edited April 17, 2007 by mandragora

[Torsten]

the latest I know is that the prepared herb is illegal to sell. I don't think this covers the plant though.... need to get the new schedules.

[t st tantra]

torsten,could you please share how to make ephedra orange juice.

t s t .

[waterdragon]

perhaps when i get enough of this seed-bearing fruit on the sinensis i could press them for juice. the taste is not too bad.

not a great focus but it gives a good idea of colour and size. just waiting for seed to develop.

[Torsten]

WD - this is sinensis??? Great!

To make ephedra punch just make a VERY strong ephedra tea, chill it, and mix about 1/3 tea with 2/3 juice.

It's yummy and refreshing.

[waterdragon]

these are indeed sinensis fruits, sweet and tasty. not sure that i'll ever have enough of these fruits to satisfy a craving though. the plants were grown from seeds you provided a few years back. as you can see by the recent influx of photos i've been severely repressed. would have been nice to have also got a piccy of last years m.glory vines against a backdrop of other ornamental vines, was outstanding and worthy of sharing.

[Skulking Lurker]

That's very interesting WD. I tried to grow these without success. The E. major sp. was one of the easiest things I've found to grow, but the sinensis for whatever reason had me stuffed.

Could anyone, maybe Torsten, list in order of potency, the ephedras ?

Thanks.

[waterdragon]

yep, the majors are easy enough, the nevs as well. had no glee with a small amount of viridis that i tried this year, temps hit 52 degrees not long after sowing, may have played a part.

[Torsten]

I munched a whole lots of ephedra berries at the berlin botanic gardens a few years ago. basically, I got busted picking seeds and figured if a swallow them I can't get into trouble I knew they were sweet because I tasted some juice off my finger just before. I can't tell if they had any effect as I had also just eaten a whole handful of ephedra herb, a bunch of coca leaves and a huge chocolate icecream

WD - do you have a male as well or did this plant have both male and female bits? We had some E.gerardiana fruit this year, but no seed as there was no pollen donor.

Potency? ephedrine is far more interesting and potent than pseudoephedrine, so this puts gerardiana, sinensis and dystachia/helvetica at the top. Followed by major which has good amounts of both. The come the pseudoephedrine-only species.

[waterdragon]

not sure how these berries came about, i do have plenty of sinensis growing so maybe there was a male donor somewhere. i moved some potted cactus earlier in the season and to my surprise the berries were tucked in behind them. the ice cream,coca and ephedra herb kinda stuffed your bioassay of the berries then? ha.

[sascacheuan]

I have found a link where shows a table where E. major is the highest and cleanest source of ephedrine (1,9% of (E) and traces of (PS)).

i prefer this information that you say about E. major, Torsten. E. major is very common where i live. :D .

http://www.cannapee.ch/ethnoshop/docs/ephedraphyto.zip

[John_Barleycorn]

Without having a lot of experience here, I have noticed that ephedra seems to contain a volatile oil, and that alkaloid potency is roughly correlated with the aroma factor. Unfortunately, the oil seems to make me nauseous, as does that in damiana. It was recently suggested to me that adding liquorice root to damiana tea would counteract the nausea problem, but it also seems to bind to the actives and take them out of solution, as far as I can tell. Dunno whether the same would happen with ephedra ...

[Torsten]

that link didn't include any info on E.major... or did I miss something?

[sascacheuan]

excuseme, This is the link:

http://www.cannapee.ch/ethnoshop/docs/ephedra.zip

[Guest mandragora]

l

Edited April 17, 2007 by mandragora

[gerbil]

mandragora,

if you propagate any i'd be very interested in obtaining a few plants/seedlings.

Especially E. sinesis

...only if legal of course :D

[Torsten]

very interesting... although I prefer phytological studies that are NOT done by the DEA

I have several references that do not concurr with this table, but it is certainly worth further investigation. Would be nice if the table is right.... should be easy enough to tell just by nibbling some

[smogs]

Torsten:

very interesting... although I prefer phytological studies that are NOT done by the DEA    

heh that reminds me of a study done on around 1500 other studies testing whether or not tobacco caused cancer and the biggest determinate was who the reasearch was funded by.

ie studies funded by tobacco companies found that it didnt.

[dirt]

i was recentley told by a well respected doofer, that ephedra is growing wild in sa? anyone else heard anything about this?

[theobromos]

Ephedra fragilis has been found to be high in ephedrine, though variable the best individuals were up to the levels of the best Asian species.

Mandragora, try Schisandra berries for coping with the heat.

Isn't it best to boil your tea with the juice in it and then chill the whole thing, Torsten? That way yhe acids in the juice extract more of the "taste".

[theobromos]

Oh and Gazpacho, of course.

[Torsten]

Originally posted by theobromos:

Isn't it best to boil your tea with the juice in it and then chill the whole thing, Torsten? That way yhe acids in the juice extract more of the "taste".

I ALWAYS put a dash of lemon in all extractions, but in this case it really doesn't make much difference. Ephedrine freebase is *very* water soluble.

The recipe is derived from travelling neccessity.... long distance driving I used to pull over at a HWY restaurant, get a juice and a cup of hot water. steep the ephedra for a few mins, mix half and half with OJ and add a few icecubes. Ready to do another 500K's

I need ephedra to keep my eyes straight while driving long distances. Even if I had plenty of sleep, my eyes lose focus after a few hours driving (also happens when watching telly). Sleep doesn't help and coffee only works for an hour or so. Sipping ephedra means I can keep driving until I actually get tired (rather than just my eyes).