There are convenient ways of making pseudoephedrine which should get circumvent the domestic shortage of pseudoephedrine in the USA.
Almost all commercial ephedrine and pseudoephedrine and the Norephedrine compounds come from L-PAC.
The molasses is first fermented to provide pyruvate and then the benzaldehyde is added and the using the enzyme pyruvate decarboxylase any yeast couples the two (the pyruvate is incorporated in Acetyl Coenzyme A) and a further enzyme reduces the product to an alcohol. There is actually no need to ferment molasses or dextrose to get pyruvate for the yeast to use but fermenting molasses is the cheapest way to get pyruvate and has other advantages.
The method goes back to Neuberg and Hirsch in Germany who first described it in 1921;
( Neuberg, C. and Hirsch, J. Biochem. Z., 1921 115 282-310.) Further German research in the early 1930s made it commercial and it was patented in 1934 as US pat 1,956,950
The method was developed heavily in the late 1950s and it had taken over almost completely by the 1990s. It is cheaper. Tricks increasing the volume efficiency yield and reducing the amount of benzoic acid that is produced. The yeast isn't special. Any yeast capable of effecting reduction may be used. It is economically advantageous to use the cheapest yeast available, and ordinary baker's yeast, Saccharomryces cerevisiae, is preferred. For maximum efficiency of reaction, it is advisable to present the maximum surface area of yeast for contact with the reactants. This can be effected by using "active" dried yeast, which is readily commercially available as "instant dry yeast", and may be stored at room temperature.
The L-PAC is then reductively aminated with methylamine to give chiral material.
Ephedra is still grown in large quantities, Natural extracts are valuable in China because of TCM and Ma huang and natural extracted material sells at a premium, but the bulk even in China is fermentation derived, usually from Indian sources who are cheaper.