The first materia medica to be found in practically all worthy texts on Chinese herbal medicines is Herba ephedrae or Ma Huang.  This herb has gotten a bad rep because of misuse and has since been banned in the United States.  It has come to the point where many diet pills available in health food stores proudly proclaim on their labels the text “ephedrine free”. This example serves to debunk a popular yet dangerously inaccurate portrayal of natural medicine by some practitio