Lobelia inflata

Specific Indications. - Mucous accumulations in the bronchi; dry croupal cough, with scant or oversecretion; asthmatic seizures; short, lancinating pain radiating from heart to left shoulder and arm; spasmodic muscular contraction; muscular rigidity.

Action and Therapy. - Internal. From the early days of Eclecticism lobelia, through Thomsonian introduction, has been a valued medicine. Many properties were once ascribed it of which little note is now taken. Its chief uses, however, were as an emetic, expectorant, and antispasmodic, fulfilling all of these offices to the admiration of its prescribers.

The Eclectic Materia Medica, Pharmacology and Therapeutics by Harvey Wickes Felter, M.D. (1922)

Cultivation and uses

Lobelia inflata has a long use as an entheogenic substance. The plant was widely used by the Penobscots and was widely used in the New England even before the time of Samuel Thomson who was credited as discovering it. Indian Tobacco is still used today. The most potent part of the plant is the seed as it contains the most lobeline, the main ingredient which gives the plant its pyschoactive property. It is sold widely in online herbal shops, and is prized among entheogen users. Its taste is reminiscent of real tobacco, acrid and burning, and it promotes the heavier flow of saliva. A common misconception is that when smoked it yields a euphoric "high" like feeling, when it actually produces a more relaxant like effect. It can be used fresh, or dry.

Lobelia inflata is also used by herbalists for treatment of asthma, hence its other nickname, asthma weed. Some make ointments of the plant to use externally.

It is also said that plant material is burned as a natural bug repellent to keep away insects such as mosquitoes.