Ephedrine shelf life

[babucher]

Anyone know the shelf-life of a bottle of unopened:
1. Ephedrine HCl
2. Ephedra extract
I found this:
http://www.inchem.org/documents/pims/pharm/pim209.htm
But the 'shelf life' subsection has no data.
Also of interest, what would be the likely decomposition products, and would they be harmful or inert?
Anyone have an analytical (HPLC, etc) method for analyzing ephedrine HCl purity?
Thanks,
Brian

 

[Insane_Man]

I don't know, there's no date on the bottle (which isn't the most scientific anyways)?

I would think it would last pretty long. You concerned since ephedra just got banned in the US?

 

[babucher]

8-->

Quote[/b] (Insane_Man @ Dec. 30 2003,5

8)]I don't know, there's no date on the bottle (which isn't the most scientific anyways)?
I would think it would last pretty long. You concerned since ephedra just got banned in the US?

Well, as far as I know it's not actually banned yet, but yes it is a concern to me.
UPDATE:
Ok, after some searching around I found out that D&E Pharmaceuticals manufactures pure Ephedrine HCl for sale. I called them up and they said that the shelf life should be at least 10 years.
They require two forms of identification with a signed copy in order to sell the pure Ephedrine HCl, but hey, might as well stock up.
Brian