Indian Tobacco. Herba.
[This is a plant very common in the United States. It has an acrid
taste, very similar to that of green tobacco. By analysis it is found to
contain an acrid principle, caoutchouc, and extractive. It is soluble
both in water and alcohol. In its medicinal effects, the lobelia is
analogous to common tobacco, and varies very much according to the dose
in which it is given. It may thus be made to act either as an emetic,
antispasmodic, expectorant, or diaphoretic. The diseases in which it has
been found useful are asthma, croup, hooping cough, and catarrh. The
tincture is the best preparation, and is prepared by digesting, for ten
days, ℥ij of the plant in a pint of diluted alcohol. The dose is from ʒj
to ʒiv—of the powder, the dose to prove emetic is from 10 to 20 grs.]