es, increases blood pressure, metabolic rate, perspiration and urine production, and stimulates the heart. It reduces the secretion of both saliva and stomach acids and also acts on unstriped muscle fibers relieving swellings of mucous membranes. Medically, it relieves asthma, allergies, colds, hay fever and rheumatism. Due to all of these properties, Ma huang is considered a nutritional supplement or dietary supplement (Gurley, Gardner, White, et al., 1998).
             In 1994, Congress passed the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) that defined dietary supplements as being distinct from drugs or food additives. As well as the new definition, other reforms dealing with supplement labeling issues, claims of nutritional support, and a limitation on the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) role in regulating dietary supplements in regard to product safety (King, 1997). This opened the doors for companies to market products without the strict FDA requirements thus the manufacturer's of Ephedra containing supplements are not required to make a label claim of ephedrine content. This leads to much of the controversy with the dangers of Ephed
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