How Indian Tobacco Can Be Used As A Remedy For Bronchitis

Other Common Names: Asthma Weed, Gagroot, Pulseweed, Emetic Herb, Frengiotu, Lobelia, Wild Tobacco, Vomitroot, Lobelia inflata

Range: Northern N. America - Labrador to Saskatchewan, Georgia, Kansas and Arkansas.

Habitat: Meadows, fields, roadsides, waste places and open woods. Usually in dry soils.

Indian Tobacco was a traditional North American Indian remedy for a wide range of conditions. Nowadays it is used mainly as a powerful antispasmodic herb in the treatment of respiratory and muscle disorders. Acting also as a respiratory stimulant, Indian Tobacco is a valuable remedy for conditions such as bronchial asthma and chronic bronchitis. In addition, the plant or its extracts have served to induce vomiting, to encourage and to stimulate respiration in cases of general and pelvic-musculature muscle relaxation during childbirth, narcotic overdose and newborn infants.

The dried flowering herb and the seed are antiasthmatic, antispasmodic, diaphoretic, diuretic, emetic, expectorant and nervine. The plant is taken internally in the treatment of asthma, bronchitis, whooping cough and pleurisy. This remedy should be used with great caution and only under the supervision of a qualified practitioner. Excess doses cause nausea, vomiting, drowsiness and respiratory failure. See also the notes on toxicity.

The plant contains the alkaline 'lobeline' which has proved to be of value in helping people to give up smoking tobacco. It is contained in many proprietary anti-smoking mixtures where it mimics the effects of nicotine. Lobelia, after it has been chewed, tastes similar to tobacco and produces effects like those of nicotine.

The alkaloids present in the leaves are used to stimulate the removal of phlegm from the respiratory tract. When chewed, the leaves induce vomiting, headache and nausea - in larger doses it has caused death. The alkaloids first act as a stimulant and then as a depressive to the autonomic nervous system and in high doses paralizes muscular action in the same way as curare.

Externally, the plant is used in treating pleurisy, rheumatism, tennis elbow, whiplash injuries, boils and ulcers.

The whole plant is harvested when the lower fruits are ripe and it is used fresh or dried.

Known Hazards: Some reports say that the plant is poisonous. Toxicological properties of lobelia include dizziness, nausea, hypotension, vomiting, stupor, tremors, paralysis, convulsions, coma, and death.

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