For over 4000 years ephedra (Ma huang) has been used in Chinese medicine to treat several disorders. Ephedra comes from a plant that has a few powerful active compounds, of which ephedrine is the most useful. Research has shown that ephedra increases metabolism and helps promote weight loss, relaxes the air passages in the lungs to help treat asthma and cough, promotes perspiration to help a person recover from a minor cold and helps promote urination to help relieve edema. Ephedra has been wid.