Ephedra has been are very well respected drug in Chinese and Indian medicine for more than 5000 years for treatment of several disorders. Asthma and bronchitis has been treated with Ephedra, but also flu and colds, Ephedra has shown to be very effective.

Later on in our century Ephedra gained a lot of attention for its abilities to boost up your metabolism, thermogenic, fat burning qualities and increased energy levels. Ephedra supplements soon became one of the preferred sports supplements, for any endurance sports and bodybuilders that needed to be shredded and cut for competition.

In 2004 The United States FDA Ban Ephedra products originated from the Ephedra plant Sinica also called Ma Huang, because of the high amount of reported side effects related to Ephedra diet pills.

One year later in response to the FDA ban, Nutraceutical International Corp, filed a lawsuit against the FDA. Us District Judge Tena Campbell struck down the ban prohibiting FDA enforcing the ban on Nutraceutical's Ephedra supplements containing 10 milligrams or less of Ephedra.

Now there are a lot of companies worldwide and in the US producing Ephedra Diet pills containing less than 10 mg of Ephedra.

Other companies have chosen to go the "safe" way looking for some substitutes to Ephedra like Bitter Orange or Synephrine. And of lot of fat burners came out on the market containing these substitutes right after the ban.
But none of them seems to have the same fat burning qualities as Ephedra have.

Studies with Synephrine have shown that it indeed target the so called brown fat cell tissue. But it is only some animals that have that type of fat cells and not humans. So the weight loss effects while using Synephrine seems to be quite mild.

Recently Synephrine got related to serious side effects causing death, and was taken of the market.

The real reason for FDA banning Ephedra Sinica seems to be that it contains a certain alkaloid that is directly linked to the side effects reported.

There are plants containing Ephedra all over the world that does not contain the dangerous alkaloid found in Sinica, these plants seems quite harmless without any of the reported side effects. One of them is found in Northern America and is also called Mormon tea.