Native Americans smoked the dried leaves as a substitute for tobacco and to treat bronchial complaints, sore throat and coughs. Thomsonian herbalists used a small amount of the herb in formulas as a catalyst to improve the performance of the other herbs and larger amounts to induce sweating and vomiting to remove toxins. All aerial parts of the plant are used including the seeds, which are thought to have the highest concentration of active principles. For this reason lobelia should be collected in the fall when the inflated seedpods are ready. In Ayurvedic medicine lobelia is considered heating with a pungent taste.
Eastern theory considers it neutral with a bitter taste.
The nicotine receptor in the body can be occupied by lobeline, reducing the urge for nicotine, and lobeline is not habit-forming. Traditional uses for lobelia are numerous and depend on the amount used. It is an antispasmodic, emetic, expectorant, stimulant, diuretic, nervine and diaphoretic. On its own in small to moderate amounts it has been used for asthma, whooping cough, bronchial spasms, epilepsy, cramps, hysteria, tetanis, strychnine poisoning and to lessen the strength of contractions during child birth. It seems to work by relaxing muscle spasms and may also be used to treat pain caused by spasms.