A Review on Worldwide Ephedra History and Story: From Fossils to Natural Products Mass Spectroscopy Characterization and Biopharmacotherapy Potential

Table 4

Pharmacological activity of extracts from different species of the worldwide genus Ephedra (published in the period 2015–2019).

Source	Part	Extract	Therapy	Model	References
Tunisia	Aerial part of E. alata	Ethyl acetate	Antiproliferative, proapoptotic, and cytotoxic potential	MCF-7 human breast cancer cells	[90]
Palestine	Aerial parts of E. alata	Decoction	Anticancer	115 breast cancer patients	[114]
Jordan	Aerial parts of E. aphylla	MeOH, methanol, CHCl3, EtOAc, n-Hx, and water	Anti-inflammatory	The inhibition of albumin denaturation assay	[122]
			Antiproliferative	Breast cancer cell lines (T47D, MCF-7) and Vero cell line (African green monkey kidney)
Lebanon	Stems of E. campylopoda	EtOH, MeOH and water	Anti-inflammatory	RAW 264.7, a murine monocyte/macrophage cell line	[97]
			Antiproliferative	Human leukemic T cell line
Iran	Stems and leaves of E. sarcocarpa	Water	Anticancer	Human breast adenocarcinoma (MCF-7) and human normal breast epithelial (MCF10A) cell lines	[123]
	Aerial parts of Ephedra	Water	Antidiabetic and antihyperlipidemic	40 male BALB/cArc Wistar rats aged eight to ten weeks (200 to 250 g)	[124]
Pakistan	Aerial parts of E. gerardiana	EtOH 70%, EtOAc, n-BuOH, and water	Antiarthritic	-Young and healthy male and female Sprague-Dawley rats; -Human red blood cell (HRBC); -Egg albumin; -Protein (BSA)	[125]
Korea	Stem of E. sinica	Water	Antineuroinflammatory	Mouse primary microglia and immortal BV-2 mouse microglial cells	[116]
	Dried stems and leaves of E. sinica Stapf., E. intermedia Schrenk, E. equisetina	MeOH	Antihyperlipidemic	6-week-old male ICR mice weighing 20 to 25 g	[126]
Japan	Ephedra	Water	Analgesic	Specific pathogen-free ddY mice (5 weeks old, male)	[127]
	E. sinica	Water	Anti-influenza	Madin–Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells	[107]
			Anticancer	MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cells
			Analgesic	ICR male mice (5 weeks of age, 8 mice per group)
	E. sinica	Water	Antiproliferative	H1975 non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell line	[128]
Taiwan	Ephedra	Water	Antipyretic	Male Sprague-Dawley rats (200–250 g)	[129]
			Antitussive	The eligible Guinea pigs
China	Ephedra	Water	Antipyretic and antiasthmatic	Male Wistar rats (6 weeks old, 160–200 g, license number: SCXK 2011–0015),; male SD rats (5; weeks old, 100–150; g, license number: SCXK 2011–; 0015)	[110]
Chile	Aerial parts of E. chilensis	Hexane, dichloromethane and EtOH	Antiproliferative	MCF-7 (human breast cancer), HT-29 (human colon cancer), PC-3 and DU-145 (human prostate cancer), and CoN (human colon epithelial cells CCD 841)	[94]