Lobelia
Indian tobacco, pukeweed, asthma weed, gag root, vomitwort, emetic weed, bladder-pod, inflated lobelia, eyebright; Rapuntium inflatum; Lobelia inflata L.
- Known today as
- Lobelia inflata, an erect annual or biennial of dry places in the northern United States and Canada, a foot or two high, with small pale violet-blue flowers whose calyx swells around the seed pod, whence inflata. The genus is named after the sixteenth-century botanist Matthias de Lobel, who, Grieve writes, died in London in 1616. The dried flowering herb and the seeds are the drug; chewed, it tastes much like tobacco, burning and acrid, and brings a flow of saliva. Its activity depends on an alkaloid, lobeline, first isolated in 1838.
- Kind
- Plant, in 1 older authority
- Constituents
- lobeline, lobelic acid
- Earliest authority here
- Felter and Lloyd, King’s American Dispensatory (1898)
- In other databases
- Plants of the World Online · GBIF · Wikidata
Caution. The old authorities disagreed. Grieve states that in excessive doses it acts as “a powerful acro-narcotic poison, producing great depression, nausea, cold-sweats, and possibly death,” and that poisoning may follow its absorption through the skin; her editor noted that herbalists denied it was poisonous or had ever caused death. King’s held that “lobelia, in the ordinary sense of the term, is not a poison,” though injudicious use could kill, arguing that its prompt emetic action usually prevents the alkaloid, which certainly kills animals, from doing fatal harm.
Lobelia: what was it used for?
An emetic, an expectorant, and a relaxant of spasm, above all in asthma. Grieve records it as expectorant, diaphoretic, and anti-asthmatic, invaluable “where relaxation of the system is required, as, for instance, to subdue spasm,” and given in epilepsy, tetanus, diphtheria, and tonsillitis. She says it should not be used as an emetic; her editor added that herbalists nearly always gave it in doses large enough to make the patient vomit, and valued it most so.
Lobelia: what does modern science say?
No European monograph covers the herb. Its alkaloid lobeline, a partial nicotine agonist, was sold in preparations to help people stop smoking; a Cochrane review of 2012 found no trials with long-term follow-up and concluded that “there is no evidence available from long term trials that lobeline can aid smoking cessation, and the short-term evidence suggests there is no benefit.” That review concerns the isolated alkaloid, not the herb.
Lobelia: is it poisonous?
Yes, in some form or dose. The old authorities disagreed. Grieve states that in excessive doses it acts as “a powerful acro-narcotic poison, producing great depression, nausea, cold-sweats, and possibly death,” and that poisoning may follow its absorption through the skin; her editor noted that herbalists denied it was poisonous or had ever caused death. King’s held that “lobelia, in the ordinary sense of the term, is not a poison,” though injudicious use could kill, arguing that its prompt emetic action usually prevents the alkaloid, which certainly kills animals, from doing fatal harm. Historical description, not medical advice; in a poisoning, call a poison centre.
Pharmacognosy & Toxicology
- Constituents
- lobelinethe liquid alkaloid on which its activity depends, first isolated by Proctor in 1838; richer in the seeds
- lobelic acidfound by Pereira
- Mechanism
- Lobeline is a partial nicotine agonist, the Cochrane review records; King’s held that its prompt emetic action usually prevents fatal harm.
- Standing
- There is no European monograph. A Cochrane review (2012) found no evidence that lobeline aids smoking cessation.
- Grieve, M. A Modern Herbal, “Lobelia.” As published on botanical.com. Read in full · the text read
- Felter, H. W., & Lloyd, J. U. (1898). King’s American Dispensatory, vol. 2, “Lobelia.” Internet Archive, kingsamericandis02kinguoft. Read in part · the text read
- Stead LF & Hughes JR (2012). Lobeline for smoking cessation. The Cochrane database of systematic reviews. PMID 22336780. Abstract read · the text read
The abstract of each source, beneath its citation. For Club members. About the Club or sign in.
Constituent names open the compound’s record at PubChem, and “ChEMBL” beside a name opens its record at ChEMBL, the European Bioinformatics Institute’s database of bioactive molecules. Where a mechanism line was checked against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37, read 1 October 2026), the check is shown with the measured value and its source paper, or says plainly that nothing has been measured. Doses are as the references give them, for description only; this is not medical advice. Each source carries the result of its check against Crossref, PubMed, or the authority’s page: see Verification.
Lobelia: what lore surrounds it?
King’s traces its names: botanists gave it none until bladder-pod in 1810; Thomson and Cutler called it emetic weed, which led to pukeweed, vomit weed, and gag root, though the root was never used; and Indian tobacco came, the authors suggest, from its tobacco-like taste rather than any record that the Indians used it.
Lobelia: what did the older authorities say?
- Felter and Lloyd, King’s American Dispensatory (1898)
- “Few drugs are more favored among Eclectic physicians than lobelia, and certainly none others have so interesting a history.” It was known to the Penobscot and used in New England domestic practice before Samuel Thomson, its “assumed discoverer,” and Manasseh Cutler, an asthmatic who found it relieved him more than anything else, published the first account of it in 1785. Thomson was tried for killing a patient, Ezra Lovett, with lobelia, and acquitted when the powder the prosecution produced proved to be marsh rosemary; to be known as a “lobelia doctor” became a byword. In a later trial in New York, Dr. R. K. Frost was convicted of manslaughter for giving “poisonous decoctions of lobelia” and sentenced to three months’ imprisonment.
Sources
- Grieve, M. A Modern Herbal, “Lobelia.” As published on botanical.com. Read in full · the text read
- Felter, H. W., & Lloyd, J. U. (1898). King’s American Dispensatory, vol. 2, “Lobelia.” Internet Archive, kingsamericandis02kinguoft. Read in part · the text read
- Stead LF & Hughes JR (2012). Lobeline for smoking cessation. The Cochrane database of systematic reviews. PMID 22336780. Abstract read · the text read
Verification
- Checked
- October 1, 2026
- Passes
- Every sentence read against its sources, in the pass over the remaining 343 entries
- The Standing line checked against the authority it names (EMA, WHO, FDA, CITES, Commission E)
- Every dated or regulatory claim checked by category across the database
- Sources
- 3 cited: 1 read in full, 1 read in part, 1 abstract read. 1 with the abstract on file.
- Corrections
- None were needed.
What was checked, how, and what was found is set out on the Verification page. A checked source is one whose record was found; it does not make the entry medical advice.
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Cite This Entry
Version 1 · first published October 17, 2026
- Chicago
“Lobelia.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified October 17, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/lobelia.
- MLA
“Lobelia.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 17 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/lobelia. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.
- APA
Lobelia. (2026, October 17). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 17, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/lobelia
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See Also
Drawing on the same sources: Grieve, Felter
Long pepper · Liverwort, or hepatica · Lovage · Oleander · Lime flower · Passionflower · the bibliography →
Nearby in the alphabet
Lodestone (naturally magnetic iron ore) · Livid pinkgill (of broadleaf woods) · Lourdes water · Litharge (a byproduct of refining silver) · Lion’s mane (A single clump of hanging spines on hardwood trees)
Historical description, not medical advice.
