mimetic, vasoconstrictor, and anti-al-From an Oriental medicine "mabkonn, Ephedra roots, which has been said to possess the opposite therapeutic effects as compared with its aerial counterpart "mabn, Ephedra herb, has been isolated L-tyrosine betaine. Since tyrosine betaine is the first time to be isolated from natural sources, it is designated as maokonine. I t may be worthy to note that maokonine showed the hypertensive activity comparable with the action of ephedrine, the main alkaloid of the crude drug *ma6", but contrary to the effect of the original crude drug "mab-konn.