RESUMO
Objective To compare the difference in constituents from different parts of wild and cultivated Ephedra sinica. Methods Using the solvent of 50% methyl alcohol to extract from the stems and roots of wild and cultivated E. sinica under heating reflux, respectively and then determine the content of ephedrine in each extractions by HPLC. The volatile oil was extracted by stream-distillation and analyzed by GC-MS method. Results The content of the ephedrine in extraction of stems and roots of wild E. sinica was 0.55% and 0.000 57% while the content of the cultivated was 0.26% and 0.001 7%. Forty-five compounds in the volatile oil were identified by GC-MS method, among them 13 compounds existed in both wild and cultivated E. sinica. Conclusion The content of the ephedrine is about two times of the cultivated in wild E. sinica′s stems, while it is very low in the roots of two kinds of herbs. And ephedrine is not found in the volatile oil.