Lobeline is a natural

Natural product

A natural product is a chemical compound or substance produced by a living organism - found in nature that usually has a pharmacological or biological activity for use in pharmaceutical drug discovery and drug design...

 alkaloid

Alkaloid

Alkaloids are a group of naturally occurring chemical compounds that contain mostly basic nitrogen atoms. This group also includes some related compounds with neutral and even weakly acidic properties. Also some synthetic compounds of similar structure are attributed to alkaloids...

 found in "Indian tobacco" (Lobelia inflata

Lobelia inflata

Lobelia inflata is a species of Lobelia native to eastern North America, from southeastern Canada south through the eastern United States to Alabama and west to Kansas.-Growth:...

), "Devil's tobacco" (Lobelia tupa

Lobelia tupa

Lobelia tupa is a species of Lobelia native to central Chile from Valparaíso south to Los Lagos regions....

), "cardinal flower" (Lobelia cardinalis

Lobelia cardinalis

Lobelia cardinalis is a species of Lobelia native to the Americas, from southeastern Canada south through the eastern and southwestern United States, Mexico and Central America to northern Colombia...

), "great lobelia" (Lobelia siphilitica

Lobelia siphilitica

The Great Blue Lobelia is a species within the Campanulaceae family. It is an herbaceous, perennial dicot native to eastern and central Canada and United States. Growing up to a meter tall, it lives in zones 4 to 9 in moist to wet soils. It produces a spike of zygomorphic flowers in the late...

), and Hippobroma longiflora

Hippobroma longiflora

Hippobroma longiflora is a flowering plant in the Campanulaceae family. It is endemic to the West Indies, but has become naturalized across the American tropics and Oceania.It is notable for its concentrations of two pyridine alkaloids: lobeline and nicotine...

. In its pure form it is a white amorphous powder which is freely soluble in water.

Lobeline has been used as a smoking cessation

Smoking cessation

Smoking cessation is the process of discontinuing the practice of inhaling a smoked substance. This article focuses exclusively on cessation of tobacco smoking; however, the methods described may apply to cessation of smoking other substances that can be difficult to stop using due to the...

 aid, and may have application in the treatment of other drug addictions such as addiction to amphetamines, cocaine or alcohol.

Lobeline has multiple mechanisms of action, acting as a VMAT2

VMAT2

The vesicular monoamine transporter 2 also known as solute carrier family 18 member 2 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the SLC18A2 gene...

 ligand, which stimulates dopamine

Dopamine

Dopamine is a catecholamine neurotransmitter present in a wide variety of animals, including both vertebrates and invertebrates. In the brain, this substituted phenethylamine functions as a neurotransmitter, activating the five known types of dopamine receptors—D1, D2, D3, D4, and D5—and their...

 release to a moderate extent when administered alone, but reduces the dopamine release caused by methamphetamine

Methamphetamine

Methamphetamine is a psychostimulant of the phenethylamine and amphetamine class of psychoactive drugs...

. It also inhibits the reuptake of dopamine and serotonin

Serotonin

Serotonin or 5-hydroxytryptamine is a monoamine neurotransmitter. Biochemically derived from tryptophan, serotonin is primarily found in the gastrointestinal tract, platelets, and in the central nervous system of animals including humans...

, and acts as a mixed agonist-antagonist at nicotinic acetylcholine receptor

Nicotinic acetylcholine receptor

Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, or nAChRs, are cholinergic receptors that form ligand-gated ion channels in the plasma membranes of certain neurons and on the postsynaptic side of the neuromuscular junction...

s and an antagonist at μ-opioid receptors

Mu Opioid receptor

The μ-opioid receptors are a class of opioid receptors with high affinity for enkephalins and beta-endorphin but low affinity for dynorphins. They are also referred to as μ opioid peptide receptors. The prototypical μ receptor agonist is the opium alkaloid morphine; μ refers to morphine...

.