Yes, it's correect that you can make ephedrine very simply with the Akabori reaction between Benzaldehyde and N-methylalanine. Ordinary alanine would give phenylpropanolamine.
The only one of the above articles I could locate was J. Am. Chem. Soc. 76, 1322 (1954) (https://www.thevespiary.org/rhodium/Rhodium/pdf/akabori.phcho.glycine.pdf)
(https://www.thevespiary.org/rhodium/Rhodium/pdf/akabori.phcho.glycine.pdf).
I doubt that the original reference has been retrieved as it is written in Japanese, and "IOC" is not likely to answer you either, as he hasn't been logged in since June.