Ephedrine as pseudoephedrine can only be steamdistilled using superheated steam. This fact comes handy separating unreacted (pseudo)ephedrine and methedrine in a post-reaction workup.
There are dried ephedra powders available which are enriched with ephedrine - usually up to 8%. So the yields posted are not impossible - they are if it was such enriched stuff pretty pity.
The bonedry plant powder (which contains no oils btw) is based with sodium carbonate in water and extracted with DCM (or chloroform). To avoid the need for massive amounts of solvent a continous extraction is used: The Plant material is in a tube, the DCM is withdrawn at the bottom and distilled to condense into the top of the tube again. Pretty simple setup, closed too, no stink.
Yields are quantitative with this method.
I would have added a detailed description of the method but there is no upload feature?
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