Research on the Chemical Components of Ephedra sinica
Ephedra intermedia Schrenk et C.A. Mey. is one of the three medicinal ephedra included in the 2020 edition of the Chinese Pharmacopoeia. It was first listed in the Shennong Bencao Jing and is classified as a medium grade. It has a pungent and slightly bitter taste, and belongs to the lung and bladder meridians. It has the effects of sweating, dispelling cold, promoting lung circulation, relieving asthma, and promoting diuresis and reducing swelling. Ephedra sinica is mainly distributed in Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Xizang and other provinces and regions in China. It is common in northwest China. It grows in arid deserts, beach areas, arid hillsides or grasslands hundreds to more than 2000 meters above sea level. It plays an important role in maintaining the balance of the ecological environment and is known as the “treasure of the desert”. At the end of the 20th century, Chinese ephedra was mostly in a wild state with few cultivated products. At the same time, farmers and herdsmen adopted a “cutting grass and removing roots” harvesting method, and various enterprises competed for ephedra resources, resulting in great damage to the wild resources of Chinese ephedra. Currently, Chinese ephedra has been included in the second batch of the “National Key Protected Wild Medicinal Species List”. With the continuous development of planting technology and the protection of existing natural resources, Chinese ephedra has gradually formed standardized planting in Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and other places, and the phenomenon of resource scarcity has been improved.
Modern research has shown that the chemical components of ephedra mainly include alkaloids, flavonoids, volatile oils, lignans, and polysaccharides, which have pharmacological effects such as anti-inflammatory, anti asthma, immunosuppressive, and anti-tumor. Therefore, based on our previous research on the chemical composition of Ephedra sinica and Ephedra sinica, and in order to further clarify and explore the pharmacological substance basis of Ephedra sinica, we are now studying the chemical composition of 50% acetone extract of Ephedra sinica and evaluating the in vitro anti asthma activity of the obtained monomer compounds, in order to further enrich the pharmacological substance basis of Ephedra sinica.

As a medicinal plant with a long history in China, ephedra has been favored by many experts and scholars, and its composition and pharmacological effects have been systematically studied. However, after consulting relevant literature, we found that research has mostly focused on ephedra and ephedra, and there is relatively less research on ephedra. Therefore, multiple chromatographic methods were used in this study to investigate the chemical composition of the 50% acetone extract of Ephedra sinica, and 22 compounds were isolated from it. Compounds 1-11 were phenylpropanoid compounds, and compounds 12-22 were terpenoids. At the same time, in vitro anti asthma activity screening was conducted on the obtained compounds, and the results showed that compounds 11 and 14 could significantly inhibit the release of β – aminoglucosidase and improve degranulation of mast cells, indicating that compounds 11 and 14 have potential anti asthma activity.
From the results of in vitro activity testing, it can be seen that the types of active compounds are not concentrated and the quantity is relatively small, making it difficult to summarize their structure-activity relationships. In the future, further targeted isolation of related compounds and evaluation of their activities can be considered to summarize their structure-activity relationships, in order to further enrich the pharmacological substance basis of Ephedra sinica and lay a foundation for the utilization and development of Ephedra sinica resources.