Assessment of the potential habitat suitability and ephedrine quality of two Ephedra species in China under climate change

Abstract

Ephedra sinica and Ephedra intermedia are important medicinal plants and critical raw materials for ephedrine extraction in the pharmaceutical industry. Climate change will affect their distribution and quality. In our study, information on E. sinica and E. intermedia was collected through wilderness and online surveys. Using high-performance liquid chromatography, we determined the contents of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine. We then utilized the maximum entropy model to assess the potential impact of future climate on the distribution and quality of the two Ephedra. The results showed that the two Ephedra species were predominantly found in the arid and semiarid regions of northern China. The suitable habitats and quality area of E. intermedia will be severely degraded under RCP 2.6, RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 conditions and the results for E. sinica are the opposite. The accumulation of chemical components in E. sinica depends on the precipitation of the wettest month (Bio13) and soil sand content, while the accumulation of chemical components in E. intermedia depends on the mean temperature of the warmest quarter (Bio10) and the precipitation seasonality (Bio15). Overall, the research results provide the basis for the two high-quality Ephedra species for conservation and sustainable resource development.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

Keywords:

• Ephedra sinica
• Ephedra intermedia
• ephedrine
• maximum entropy model
• climate change

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article [and/or] its supplementary materials.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported financially by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81760687), Key Research and Development Project of Hebei Province: Scientific and Technological Innovation Team of Modern Seed Industry of Traditional Chinese Medicine (21326312D), the Hebei Natural Science Foundation, China (H2022423004), The Innovation Team of Hebei Province Modern Agricultural Industry Technology System (HBCT2018060205), the Hebei Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, China (Grant No. 2022098) and the Science and Technology Research Project of Colleges and Universities in Hebei Province (QN2023026)