Surely you jest. Let me skip the well regulated, well-tested, reliable, precisely dosed, quality controlled and impurities-removed, time-released (if you so desire), mass-market product in favor of a plant that I have to take care of, and cross my fingers when the time comes that it delivers what I need, without potentially dangerous impurities, in the proper dosage and assume that it will be safer?
It would be like ripping out the perfectly functional seatbelt in my car and replacing it with a home-made duct-tape based mechanism for reduced side effects.
Ephedra is a meager little shrub that doesn't have a lot of needs and has been drank as a tea for thousands of years. Ephedrine is also much safer than pseudoephedrine with fewer side effects.
I grow a lot of medicinal herbs and have never had to worry about dangerous impurities or quality control, except for the occasional spider web. I'm not a homeopathic nut, but certain things (mint, ephedra, thyme, sage, peppers) are easy to grow and provide tangible, scientifically confirmed benefits.
I don't know about the others, but mint being "easy to grow" is an understatement. Left unattended, it can take over a garden like the legions of Rome.
Ephedra tea contains pseudoephedrine and ephedrine in potentially inconsistent amounts. Someone who has an adverse reaction to pseudoephedrine tablets is likely to have an adverse reaction to such a tea as well, and just how adverse is harder to predict.
