Ephedra is the plant used as a stimulant and slimming aid, containing ephedrine — the jointed, broom-like shrub of deserts and steppes whose stems traditional Chinese medicine has used for millennia against asthma and colds. Its alkaloids, chiefly ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, stimulate the sympathetic nervous system: airways widen, heart rate and blood pressure rise, metabolism quickens, appetite fades. Those effects made ephedra the darling of weight-loss and sports supplements in the 1990s — until the cardiovascular toll became undeniable: strokes, heart attacks, and deaths led to bans on ephedra supplements in the US and elsewhere. The plant itself remains a traditional medicine; the concentrated supplement trade was the problem. Ephedra’s story is the arc of many stimulant botanicals — genuine pharmacology, genuine risk, and regulation arriving after the harm.