Asthma, cough treated with TCM Lobelia inflata

What is lobelia herb (Ban Bian Lian)? There are a few different species in the world like creeping ground cover lobelia used as ornamental plant only. But other are also used as medicinals. Now we are going to focus on its medicinal properties.

Lobelia inflata
Grown mainly in eastern North America, it is also known as a few different names like Indian tobacco, Asthma weed, Pukeweed, Bladderpod, Vomitroot, and Gagroot, etc. Typically this herb, annual or biennial, grows 3 feet high, with upright, hairy, and angular stem, yellowish or pale green leaves, apical branches, and a few small isolated flowers in yellow inside but pale violet outside. And it smells irritating and tastes bitter.

Lobelia chinensis
Native to east, south, southwest, and south-central China, it is also known as Chinese Lobelia Herb and Herba Lobellae Chinensis, which refers to the whole plant from Lobelia chinensis Lour. in family Campanulaceae. It is a small perennial herb, 15 to 35cm in length, often snarled up. Rhizome is cylindrical, 1 to 2mm in diameter, with lateral fine fibril, faint yellow to yellowish brown, and tiny longitudinal grain on the surface. Stem is long and thin, branching, grayish-green, and with conspicuous nodes. Leaves are alternate, sessile, mostly crumpled, green brown, narrowly lanceolate to linear after flattened, and solitary in leaf axils. Corolla is connate at base, and 5-lobed on the top swaying to one side. It is with little odor and slightly sweet and pungent in taste. Medicinally the one with greener stem and leaves and yellow root is preferred.

What is it used for?
Since the two species mentioned grow in different places and are used by different people, their medical applications vary too. Modern scientific tests confirmed that the whole herb contains alkaloid, mainly L-olbeline, olebelanine, lobelanidine, isolobelanine, flavonoid glycosides, saponins, inu-lin, p-hydroxy-benzoic acid, fumaric acid, succinic acid and lobeli-nin in tuber.

Lobelia inflata benefits and side effects
It has been widely used by herbalist to stop smoking (FDA banned the sale of lobeline-containing smoking products in 1993), treat Asthma, cough, and Bronchitis, induce vomiting, remove mucus, and relax muscles and sooth nerves, lungs, throat, and bronchial tubes.

Deemed as one of potentially toxic herbs, it could result in Stomachache, nausea, dryness of the mouth, heartburn feeling, and vertigo, or excessive perspiration, shaking hands, accelerating heartbeats, eclampsia, and slow response in large doses.