A naturally occurring stimulant drug found in plants that increases heart rate and can be used as a decongestant or energy booster.
From Ephedra, the genus name of plants (Greek ephedra, 'growing upon'), plus the chemical suffix -in. The plant name itself derives from Greek epi- 'upon' and hedra 'seat', referring to how the stem appears to sit upon the branches.
Ephedrine was used in traditional Chinese medicine for thousands of years before Western chemists isolated and synthesized it in the early 1900s—making it one of the first plant-derived compounds to become a modern pharmaceutical drug.
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