What is the difference between ephedra and amphetamine

This close-up is of the female flowers. Photo by Bruce Lund. Ephedra viridis is common in the southwestern United States. Photo by Teresa Prendusi.

There are 40 known ephedra species distributed among the arid and semiarid regions of Asia, Europe, northern Africa, western North America, and South America. They can grow from sea level up to 5, meters high in the Himalayan and Andes mountains. An ancient group of plants, ephedras have been around for more than million years and are more closely related to conifers than to flowering plants. Ephedra sinica, a Chinese species of ephedra ma huang , contains the alkaloids ephedrine and pseudoephedrine.

Ephedrine is an amphetamine-like compound that can powerfully stimulate the nervous system and heart. In , the U. Food and Drug Administration FDA banned the sale of dietary supplements containing ephedrine alkaloids ephedra because such supplements present an unreasonable risk of illness or fatality. What they may not know is that among its many chemical compounds, the genus Nicotiana contains harmala and harmaline alkaloids, known hallucinogens.

For thousands of years, shamans and Indians of the New World ritually used various tobacco species to gain spiritual insight into the causes of disease or illness.

Currently, 76 to 90 species of the genus Nicotiana are known worldwide, the vast majority originating from the Americas. The Indians of South America were first to domesticate tobacco and discover the many ways of using it e. Archeologists have found that Indians in the Americas cultivated at least 12 different species, Nicotiana tabacum and N. Nicotiana tabacum. Photo by J. The spread of tobacco into North America is complex, but the unusual use of lime in chewing tobacco by the Haida and Tlingit Indians of the Northwest Coast is intriguing.

Lime or other alkali substances like ground up seashell ash is an additive that has been used worldwide to enhance the psychoactive effect of a plant substance e. The story about synthetic stimulants popping up in dietary supplements is not new.

A little over a decade ago the major dietary supplement of concern in the US was ephedrine an alkaloid found in ephedra. Ephedrine was widely used for weight loss and performance enhancement although it also has approved medical applications.

Use of ephedrine supplements was highly prevalent by the late s, and between and an estimated 2. In an ironic twist, amphetamine was actually first used in the early s as a replacement for ephedrine. Ephedrine products were also sold as legal replacements for other illicit drugs in the late s. For example, ephedrine was a main ingredient in a product called Herbal Ecstasy, which was promoted as a legal and healthier alternative to MDMA ecstasy.

In , the Federal Drug Administration FDA banned ephedrine from dietary supplements as it was deemed an unreasonable risk to public health. The media focused heavily on the thousands of self-reported adverse events potentially related to use there were more than 18, reported by However, the media, FDA and public may not have considered that once ephedrine was banned, it would be replaced by new stimulant drugs, which might not be much safer than ephedrine.

Right after the FDA finally managed to ban ephedrine from dietary supplements another stimulant drug called synephrine bitter orange popped up in supplements to replace it. Certain formulations of amphetamine, typically pseudoephedrine, are used in medications that treat cold symptoms , such as Sudafed, Franssen said.

The amphetamine stimulants reduce the swelling of the blood vessels in the nose; this helps open up the airways, allowing for easier breathing. The medications are available without a prescription but are stored behind the pharmacy counter because they can be illegally used to brew methamphetamine, according to the American Council on Science and Health. There's some evidence that amphetamines may treat obesity by acting as appetite suppressants.

A clinical trial published in the journal Frontiers in Endocrinology reported that patients who took amphetamine medications experienced increased weight loss and motivation. The mechanism was unclear, and more research is needed to determine if amphetamines can be used for long-term weight loss and maintenance.

When taken properly, amphetamine-based medications can be safe and effective. But as with any prescribed medication, there are potential side effects. Amphetamines can have a powerful effect on the body and brain, even when taken only once. According to MedlinePlus , side effects of taking amphetamines include:. Side effects such as enhanced mood are linked to the increase production and release of dopamine , a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure.

Amphetamines also cause an increase in norepinephrine, the hormone involved with the activation of the sympathetic nervous system , which is what controls our "fight-or-flight" mechanism, Franssen said. Norepinephrine causes the physical side effects, such as increased respiration, heart rate and blood pressure. Amphetamine can cause the brain to produce such high amounts of dopamine that the brain compensates by getting rid of dopamine receptors, Franssen said, similar to how we cover our ears to decrease the volume when someone is shouting at us.

Removing these receptors decreases the person's ability to feel pleasure and can increase depression or suicidal thoughts when the person's not using the drug, according to American Addiction Centers.