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| | + | {{Copyedited}}{{Paid}}{{Approved}}{{Images OK}}{{Submitted}} |
| | + | [[Category:Public]] |
| | {{Taxobox_begin | color = lightgreen | name = Tobacco}} | | {{Taxobox_begin | color = lightgreen | name = Tobacco}} |
| | {{Taxobox_image | image = [[Image:Koeh-098.jpg|240px|Nicotiana tabacum]] | caption = Nicotiana tabacum}} | | {{Taxobox_image | image = [[Image:Koeh-098.jpg|240px|Nicotiana tabacum]] | caption = Nicotiana tabacum}} |
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| | {{Taxobox_divisio_entry | taxon = [[Flowering plant|Magnoliophyta]]}} | | {{Taxobox_divisio_entry | taxon = [[Flowering plant|Magnoliophyta]]}} |
| | {{Taxobox_classis_entry | taxon = [[Magnoliopsida]]}} | | {{Taxobox_classis_entry | taxon = [[Magnoliopsida]]}} |
| − | {{Taxobox_ordo_entry | taxon = [[Solanales]]}} | + | {{Taxobox_ordo_entry | taxon = Solanales}} |
| − | {{Taxobox_familia_entry | taxon = [[Solanaceae]]}} | + | {{Taxobox_familia_entry | taxon = Solanaceae}} |
| | {{Taxobox genus entry | taxon = '''''Nicotiana'''''}}<br/>{{Taxobox authority new | authority = [[Carolus Linnaeus|L.]]}} | | {{Taxobox genus entry | taxon = '''''Nicotiana'''''}}<br/>{{Taxobox authority new | authority = [[Carolus Linnaeus|L.]]}} |
| | {{Taxobox_end_placement}} | | {{Taxobox_end_placement}} |
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| | ''N. tomentosa''<br> | | ''N. tomentosa''<br> |
| | Ref: [http://www.itis.usda.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=30562 ITIS 30562]<br> | | Ref: [http://www.itis.usda.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=30562 ITIS 30562]<br> |
| − | as of [[August 26]], [[2005]] | + | as of August 26, 2005 |
| | {{Taxobox_end}} | | {{Taxobox_end}} |
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| − | '''Tobacco''' (''Nicotiana spp.'', L.) refers to a genus of broad-leafed plants of the [[nightshade]] family indigenous to [[North America|North]] and [[South America]], or to the dried and cured leaves of such plants. Tobacco leaves are often smoked (see [[tobacco smoking]]) in the form of a [[cigar]] or [[cigarette]], or in a [[smoking pipe]], or in a [[bong|water pipe]] or a [[hookah]]. Tobacco is also chewed, "dipped" (placed between the cheek and gum), and sniffed into the nose as finely powdered [[snuff]]. The Spanish word "tabaco" is thought to have its origin in [[Arawakan]] language, particularly, in the [[Taino]] language of the [[Caribbean]], said to refer to a roll of these leaves (according to [[Bartolome de Las Casas]], 1552) or to the "tabago", a kind of y-shaped pipe for sniffing tobacco smoke (according to Oviedo, the leaves themselves were referred to as Cohiba, but Sp. tabaco (also It. tobacco) was commonly used to define medicinal [[herb]]s from [[1410]], originating from the [[arabic language|Arabic]] "tabbaq", reportedly since the [[9th century]], as the name of various herbs. The word might then be European, and later applied to this plant from the Americas. | + | The word '''tobacco''' may refer either to the various [[species]] of broad-leafed [[plant]]s comprising the genus ''Nicotiana'' of the nightshade family, or to the dried leaves of these plants. The dried and cured leaves of tobacco plants are smoked and consumed in other ways as a source of the alkaloid drug [[nicotine]], a powerful [[neurotoxin]] that is particularly harmful to [[insect]]s. |
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| − | Tobacco contains the [[alkaloid]] [[nicotine]], a powerful [[neurotoxin]] that is particularly harmful to [[insects]]. All means of consuming tobacco result in the [[absorption (chemistry)|absorption]] of nicotine in varying amounts into the user's [[bloodstream]], and over time the development of [[Physiological tolerance|tolerance]] and [[Chemical dependency|dependence]]. Absorption quantity, frequency and speed seem to have a direct relationship with how strong a dependence and tolerance, if any, might be created. A [[lethal dose]] of nicotine is contained in as little as one half of a cigar or three cigarettes; however, only a fraction of the nicotine contained in these products is actually released into the smoke, and most clinically significant cases of [[nicotine poisoning]] are the result of concentrated forms of the compound used as [[insecticide]]s. Other active alkaloids in tobacco include [[harmala alkaloid]]s.
| + | More than 20 species of tobacco plants have been identified. Among these, the most important economically to [[human being|human]]s is cultivated tobacco, ''Nicotiana tabacum''. |
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| − | Tobacco smoking carries significant risks including the potential to develop various [[cancer]]s as well as [[stroke]]s, and severe [[cardiovascular]] and [[respiratory disease]]s. | + | Tobacco use has had a tremendous impact on history and society all over the world, especially in the last five hundred years. Today, its use is considered a health hazard and one of the leading causes of [[disease]] and death in the world. These problems reflect aspects of human and social responsibility. For consumers, any perceived benefit or short-term gratification carries with it the risk of long-term, serious repercussions. For those promoting tobacco consumption, even among youth, in order to gain monetary profit, the actions represent a lack of social responsibility and a deviation from the religious precept of living for the sake of others. |
| − | [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=16229246&query_hl=3&itool=pubmed_docsum]
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| − | Significantly shorter life expectancies have been associated with tobacco smoking.
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| − | [http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/health_advice/facts/smokehealth.htm]
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| − | Many jurisdictions have enacted [[smoking ban]]s in an effort to minimize possible damage to [[public health]] caused by [[tobacco smoking]]. The substantially increased risk of developing cancer as a result of tobacco usage seems to be due to the plethora of [[nitrosamine]]s and other [[carcinogen]]ic compounds found in tobacco and its residue as a result of [[anaerobic]] heating, either due to smoking or to flue-curing or [[#fire-cured|fire-curing]]. The use of flue-cured or fire-cured smokeless tobacco in lieu of smoked tobacco reduces the risk of respiratory cancers but still carries significant risk of oral cancer.
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| − | [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15373710&query_hl=5&itool=pubmed_docsum]
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| − | In contrast, use of steam-cured chewing tobacco ([[#Snus|snus]]), avoids the carcinogenicity by not generating nitrosamines, but the negative effects of the nicotine on the [[cardiovascular system]] and [[pancreas]] are not ameliorated. [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=9411127&query_hl=5&itool=pubmed_DocSum]
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| | + | ==The tobacco plant== |
| | [[Image:Tobacco.jpg|thumb|left|225px|Tobacco plants]] | | [[Image:Tobacco.jpg|thumb|left|225px|Tobacco plants]] |
| | + | Tobacco is a member of the nightshade family, ''Solanaceae'', along with [[potato]]es (''Solanum tuberosum''), [[tomato]]es (''Solanum lycopersicum''), [[mandrake]]s (''Mandragora officinarum''), and deadly nightshade (''Atropa belladonna''). There are about 67 species in the ''[[Nicotiana]]'' genus, located in America (largely in Andean South America and Mexico), Australia, South Pacific Islands, and one in Namibia (Hyde and Wursten 2008). |
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| − | ==History==
| + | The tobacco plant is an annual (or sometimes perennial) [[herb]] growing about 1-2 meters (3-7 feet) tall. ''Nicotiana tabacum'' has about 20 large [[Leaf|leaves]], each one about 60-75 cm (24-30 inches) long and 38-46 cm (15-18 inches) wide. Tobacco plants [[flower]] in summer producing white, purple, pink, or red flowers which are most often pollinated by moths. One plant can produce up to a million [[seed]]s. Tobacco plants require warm climate and high humidity to grow well. They can grow on poor soil, but do not do well if there is too much [[nitrogen]] in the soil (IPCS 2006). |
| − | [[Image:Native_American_tobacco_flower.jpg|thumb|200px|Native American Tobacco flower and buds]]
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| − | Native Americans used tobacco before Europeans arrived in America, and early European settlers in America learned to smoke and brought the practice back to [[Europe]], where it became hugely popular. At extremely high doses, tobacco becomes [[Psychedelics, dissociatives and deliriants|hallucinogenic]]; accordingly, Native Americans generally did not use the drug [[recreational drug|recreationally]]. Rather, it was often consumed in extraordinarily high quantities and used as an [[entheogen]]; generally, this was done only by experienced [[Shamanism|shamans]] or [[medicine man|medicine men]]. In addition to being smoked, uncured tobacco was often eaten, drunk as tobacco juice, or used in enemas. Early missionaries often reported on the state caused by tobacco, but as it spread into the west, it was no longer used in such large quantities or for entheogenic purposes. Religious use of tobacco is still common among many [[indigenous people]]s, particularly those of [[South America]].
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| − | With the arrival of Europeans, tobacco became one of the primary products fueling the colonization of the future American South, long before the creation of the [[United States]]. The initial colonial expansion, fueled by the desire to increase tobacco production, was one cause of the first colonial conflicts with [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] and became a driving factor for the use of [[African slaves]]' labor.
| + | ==Nicotine== |
| | + | The [[root]]s of the tobacco plant produce a substance called [[nicotine]], which is stored mainly in the [[leaf|leaves]]. Nicotine is a powerful poison and seems to benefit the plant by protecting it from [[insect]]s, working by attacking the junctions between the insects' nerve cells (Stuart 2004). Tobacco leaves are sometimes soaked or boiled and the water sprayed on other plants as an organic insecticide. Nicotine is also a deadly poison to [[human being|humans]]. Two to four drops (pure nicotine is an oily liquid) are a fatal dose for an adult. Smoking and chewing tobacco results in a much smaller dose; however, people have died as a result of mistaking wild tobacco for an edible herb and boiling and eating a large quantity (IPCS 2006). |
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| − | In [[1609]], [[John Rolfe]] arrived at the [[Jamestown Settlement]] in [[Virginia]]. He is credited as the first man to successfully raise tobacco for commercial use at Jamestown. The tobacco raised in Virginia at that time, ''[[Nicotiana rustica]]'', was not to the liking of the Europeans, but Rolfe had brought some seed for ''[[Nicotiana tabacum]]'' with him from [[Bermuda]]. Shortly after arriving, his first wife died, and he married [[Pocahontas]], a daughter of Chief [[Powhatan]]. Although most of the settlers wouldn't touch the tobacco crop, Rolfe was able to make his fortune farming it for export at [[Varina, Virginia|Varina Farms Plantation]]. When he left for [[England]] with Pocahontas, he was wealthy. When Rolfe returned to Jamestown following Pocahontas's death in England, he continued to improve the quality of tobacco. By 1620, 40,000 pounds of tobacco were shipped to England. By the time John Rolfe died in [[1622]], Jamestown was thriving as a producer of tobacco and Jamestown's population would top 4,000. Tobacco led to the importation of the colony's first black slaves as well as women from England in [[1619]].
| + | Nicotine is also a powerful psychochemical, which acts on the [[nervous system]]. In large doses it can be a hallucinogen. In smaller doses it affects the functioning of the nervous system in various ways, as well as affecting the [[circulatory system|circulatory]] and [[endocrine system]]s. These effects are considered pleasurable and desirable by tobacco users. Dr. Edwin Fisher writes: "Nicotine is a pretty remarkable drug. It works in many different situations. If you're feeling tense, nicotine relaxes you. If you're feeling drowsy, nicotine increases your alertness. If you're feeling sad, it elevates your mood. If you're feeling hungry, it calms your hunger pangs" (Fisher 1998). |
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| − | [[Image:Tobacco.JPG|thumb|200px|Slaves processing tobacco in Virginia 1670]] | + | While nicotine is prominent in tobacco plants, it is also found in lower quantities in [[tomato]], [[potato]], eggplant (aubergine), green pepper, and the coca plant. |
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| − | The importation of tobacco into Europe was not without resistance and controversy, even in the 17th century. King [[James VI of Scotland and I of England|James I]] of England (James VI of [[Scotland]]) wrote a famous [[polemic]] titled [[A Counterblast to Tobacco|''A Counterblaste to Tobacco'']] in [[1604]] (published in [[1672]]). In his essay, the king denounced tobacco use as "[a] custome lothsome to the eye, hatefull to the Nose, harmefull to the braine, dangerous to the Lungs, and in the blacke stinking fume thereof, neerest resembling the horrible Stigian smoke of the pit that is bottomelesse." In that same year, an English [[statute]] was enacted that placed a heavy protective [[tariff]] on every [[Pound (weight)|pound]] of tobacco brought into England.
| + | ==Cultivation and uses== |
| | + | Tobacco was first used by Native Americans and began to be cultivated about eight thousand years ago in [[South America]]. ''Nicotiana tobacum'' is not found wild and may be a hybrid of other [[species]]. Its use and cultivation spread throughout most of South and North America. |
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| − | Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, tobacco continued to be the "cash crop" of the Virginia Colony, along with [[The Carolinas]]. Large tobacco warehouses filled the areas near the wharfs of new thriving towns such as [[Richmond, Virginia|Richmond]] and [[Manchester, Virginia|Manchester]] at the [[fall line]] ([[head of navigation]]) on the [[James River (Virginia)|James River]], and [[Petersburg, Virginia|Petersburg]] on the [[Appomattox River]].
| + | One of the most important early uses of tobacco was as a hallucinogen in [[shamanism|shamanistic]] rituals (Borio 2006). It was also used for medical reasons; including the treatment of rheumatic swelling, skin diseases, and scorpion stings (PFF 2006). After a time, the smoking of dried tobacco leaves in clay pipes or rolled as cigars became common in some Native American societies. Several tobacco species were used including "Aztec tobacco" (''Nicotiana rustica''). |
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| − | Until 1883, tobacco excise tax accounted for one third of internal revenue collected by the United States government.
| + | Tobacco leaves were given to [[Christopher Columbus]] by the people of the West Indies in 1492. However, he did not understand their purpose. It is said that Rodrigo de Jerez, one of Columbus's crew, was the first European to smoke tobacco. Ramon Pane, a Catholic [[monk]] who came on Columbus's second voyage to the New World in 1493, wrote an account of tobacco use and is credited with introducing it to [[Europe]]. Over the next one hundred years, tobacco cultivation and use spread around the world; mainly by Spanish, Portuguese, and English sailors (Borio 2006). |
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| − | A historian of the American South in the late 1860s reported on typical usage in the region where it was grown: <ref> ''A History of the United States since the Civil War'' Volume: 1. by Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer; 1917. P 93. </ref> <blockquote>
| + | Dried tobacco leaves were smoked in pipes or chewed. In the 1600s snuff, powered tobacco which was inhaled, became popular among the upper classes. In the 1800s and 1900s, cigars (leaves rolled inside other leaves) and cigarettes (leaves rolled in [[paper]]), became the most popular ways to use tobacco. |
| − | The chewing of tobacco was well-nigh universal. This
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| − | habit had been widespread among the agricultural population of America both North and South before the war. Soldiers had found the quid a solace in the field and continued to revolve it in their mouths upon returning to their homes. Out of doors where his life was principally led the chewer spat upon his lands without offence to other men, and his homes and public buildings were supplied with spittoons. Brown and yellow parabolas were projected to right and left toward these receivers, but very often without the careful aim which
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| − | made for cleanly living. Even the pews of fashionable churches
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| − | were likely to contain these familiar conveniences. The large
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| − | numbers of Southern men, and these were of the better class
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| − | (officers in the Confederate army and planters, worth $20,000 | |
| − | or more, and barred from general amnesty) who presented themselves for the pardon of President Johnson, while they sat awaiting his pleasure in the ante-room at the White House, covered its floor with pools and rivulets of their spittle. An observant traveller in the South in 1865 said that in his belief seven-tenths of all persons above the age of twelve years, both male and female, used tobacco in some form. Women could be seen at the doors of their cabins in their bare feet, in their dirty one-piece cotton garments, their chairs tipped back, smoking pipes made of corn cobs into which were fitted reed stems or goose quills. Boys of eight or nine years of age and half-grown girls smoked. Women and girls "dipped" in their houses, on their porches, in the public parlors of hotels and in the streets. </blockquote>
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| − | As a lucrative crop, tobacco has been the subject of a great deal of biological and genetic research. The economic impact of Tobacco Mosaic disease was the impetus that led to the isolation of [[Tobacco mosaic virus]], the first virus to be identified; the fortunate coincidence that it is one of the simplest virii and can self-assemble from purified [[nucleic acid]] and [[protein]] led in turn to the rapid advancement of the field of [[virology]]. The [[1946]] [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] was shared by [[Wendell Meredith Stanley]] for his [[1935]] work crystallizing the virus, and showing that it still remains active.
| + | The cultivation of tobacco is labor intensive. The [[seed]]s are sown in a seedbed and after sprouting are transplanted to the field where they will grow. After a while the side shoots and [[flower]]s are cut off to encourage more growth of the [[leaf|leaves]]. When the leaves are ready to be harvested the plant is cut down or the individual leaves cut off the plant by hand. Then they are taken to barns where they are hung up to dry, either by air or with the help of fire. After that, they are baled for shipment to market. |
| | + | [[Image:Tobacco.JPG|thumb|left|240px|This 1670 painting shows enslaved Africans working in the tobacco sheds of a colonial tobacco plantation]] |
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| − | ===Early Medical Use===
| + | Starting in the mid 1600s, the English colonies in North America became one of the world's most important tobacco growing regions. The high value of tobacco and the amount of labor required to grow it were important factors which led to the establishment of [[slavery]] in the colonies. Conflicts over the taxation and regulation of the trade of tobacco were sources of conflict between the colonies and England, which contributed to the onset of the [[American Revolutionary War|American Revolution]] in 1776 (Borio 2006). |
| − | *1529-Used for treating headaches, colds, abscesses, and sores
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| − | *1550s-known in France as "the holy plant"
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| − | *17th Century-possible negative health effects noted
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| − | *1828-active ingredient, nicotine, isolated
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| − | *18th and 19th Centuries-slow advances of medical science removed tobacco from doctor's prescription pad
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| − | ==Cultivation== | + | ==Health concerns== |
| | + | As the use of tobacco grew, some people became concerned about its possible ill effects on the health of its users. One of the first was King [[James I of England]]. In 1604 he wrote "A Counterblaste to Tobacco" in which he asked his subjects: |
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| − | '''Top Ten Tobacco Producers - 2005'''
| + | <blockquote>Have you not reason then to bee ashamed, and to forbeare this filthie noveltie, so basely grounded, so foolishly received and so grossely mistaken in the right use thereof? In your abuse thereof sinning against God, harming your selves both in persons and goods, and raking also thereby the markes and notes of vanitie upon you: by the custome thereof making your selves to be wondered at by all forraine civil Nations, and by all strangers that come among you, to be scorned and contemned. A custome lothsome to the eye, hatefull to the Nose, harmefull to the braine, dangerous to the Lungs, and in the blacke stinking fume thereof, neerest resembling the horrible Stigian smoke of the pit that is bottomelesse. (James 1604)</blockquote> |
| − | (in million metric ton) | |
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| − | * China 2.51
| + | In 1761 English doctor John Hill published "Cautions against the Immoderate Use of Snuff" in which he warned snuff users that they were vulnerable to cancers of the nose. In 1795, American Samuel Thomas von Soemmering reported on [[cancer|cancers]] of the lip in pipe smokers. In 1912, American Dr. Isaac Adler was the first to strongly suggest that [[lung cancer]] is related to smoking. In 1929 Fritz Lickint of Dresden, [[Germany]] published the first formal statistical evidence of a lung cancer–tobacco link, based on a study showing that lung cancer sufferers were likely to be smokers. Lickint also argued that tobacco use was the best way to explain the fact that lung cancer struck men four or five times more often than women (since women smoked much less) (Borio 2006). |
| − | * Brazil 0.88
| + | [[Image:Papierosa 1 ubt 0069.jpeg|thumb|The cigarette is now the most common form of tobacco use]] |
| − | * India 0.60
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| − | * USA 0.29
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| − | * Indonesia 0.14
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| − | * Turkey 0.14
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| − | * Greece 0.12
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| − | * Argentina 0.12
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| − | * Italy 0.11
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| − | * Pakistan 0.08
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| − | '''World Total''' 6.38 | + | In 1964 Luther L. Terry, M.D., Surgeon General of the United States Public Health Service, released the report of the Surgeon General's Advisory Committee on Smoking and Health. It was based on over seven thousand scientific articles that linked tobacco use with [[cancer]] and other [[disease]]s. This report led to laws requiring warning labels on tobacco products and to restrictions on tobacco advertisements. From this time, Americans became much more aware of the dangers of tobacco and its use in the United States began to decline. By 2004, nearly half of all Americans who had ever smoked had quit (CDC 2004). |
| − | Source: <br>[[UN Food & Agriculture Organisation]] (FAO)''[http://faostat.fao.org/faostat/form?collection=Production.Crops.Primary&Domain=Production&servlet=1&hasbulk=0&version=ext&language=EN]
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| − | ===Sowing===
| + | Tobacco use has also been shown to be associated with cancers of the mouth, pharynx, larynx, esophagus, stomach, [[pancreas]], cervix, [[kidney]], ureter, and bladder; as well as tied to [[leukemia]], cataracts, [[pneumonia]], chronic bronchitis, [[emphysema]], stroke, heart attack, vascular disease, and aneurysm. It is estimated that around 440,000 Americans die of tobacco related diseases each year. Significantly shorter life expectancies have been associated with tobacco smoking. It is very difficult for many people to quit tobacco use because of the addictive nature of nicotine itself (NIDA 2006). |
| − | Tobacco [[seed]]s are scattered onto the surface of the [[soil]], as their [[germination]] is activated by light. In colonial Virginia, seedbeds were fertilized with wood ash or animal [[manure]] (frequently powdered [[horse]] manure). Seedbeds were then covered with branches to protect the young plants from frost damage. These plants were left to grow until around April. | |
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| − | In the [[nineteenth century]], young plants came under increasing attack from the flea [[beetle]] (''[[Epitrix cucumeris]]'' or ''[[Epitrix pubescens]]''), causing destruction of half the United States tobacco crop in [[1876]]. In the years afterward, many [[experiment]]s were attempted and discussed to control the flea beetle. By [[1880]] it was discovered that replacing the branches with a frame covered by thin fabric would effectively protect plants from the beetle. This practice spread until it became ubiquitous in the [[1890s]].
| + | A lethal dose of nicotine is contained in as little as one half of a cigar or three cigarettes; however, only a fraction of the nicotine contained in these products is actually released into the smoke, and most clinically significant cases of nicotine poisoning are the result of concentrated forms of the compound used as insecticides. Other active alkaloids in tobacco include harmala alkaloids. |
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| − | Today, in the [[United States]], unlike other countries, tobacco is often fertilized with the mineral [[apatite]] in order to partially starve the plant for [[nitrogen]], which changes the taste. This (together with the use of licorice and other additives) accounts for the different flavor of American cigarettes from those available in other countries. There is, however, some suggestion that this may have [[Tobacco smoke#Radioactive components of tobacco|adverse health effects]] attributable to the [[polonium]] content of apatite.
| + | The substantially increased risk of developing cancer as a result of tobacco usage seems to be due to the plethora of nitrosamines and other carcinogenic compounds found in tobacco and its residue as a result of anaerobic heating, either due to smoking or to flue-curing or fire-curing. The use of flue-cured or fire-cured smokeless tobacco in lieu of smoked tobacco reduces the risk of respiratory cancers but still carries significant risk of oral cancer. In contrast, use of steam-cured chewing tobacco (snus), avoids the carcinogenicity by not generating nitrosamines, but the negative effects of the nicotine on the cardiovascular system and pancreas are not ameliorated. |
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| − | ===Transplanting=== | + | ==Present and future status== |
| | + | Tobacco is the largest non-food [[agriculture|crop]] by monetary value in the world today. Although its use in the United States is lessening, worldwide use is expanding partly due to expanding population and partly to expanding income in many nations. [[China]] is both the largest grower (producing 2.51 million metric tons in 2005) and the largest consumer of tobacco today. [[[Brazil]] (0.88 million metric tons in 2005), [India]] (0.60), and the United States (0.29) are the next three largest growers. There are many other tobacco growing nations and it is consumed in every nation. European nations are the largest importers of tobacco. In 2003, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations predicted that tobacco use would continue to expand at least through 2010 (FAO 2003). |
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| − | After the plants have reached a certain height, they are transplanted into fields. This was originally done by making a relatively large hole in the tilled earth with a tobacco peg, then placing the small plant in the hole. Various mechanical tobacco planters were invented throughout the late 19th and early 20th century to automate this process, making a hole, fertilizing it, and guiding a plant into the hole with one motion.
| + | Governments around the world, and the [[United Nations]] and other organizations, are trying to discourage the use of tobacco because of its ill effects on the health and prosperity of people and communities. Tobacco advocates, such as those working in the tobacco industry, point out the benefits of tobacco growing to small farmers and urge governments not to take drastic action to curb its production (ITGA 2006). |
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| − | ===Topping and suckering===
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| − | Once the tobacco plants are growing well, they will begin to produce shoots from the joint of each leaf with the stalk. These secondary shoots — known as "suckers" — are undesirable as they divert energy that could be directed into the leaves. They are removed in a process known as "suckering" (sometimes spelled "succoring" in older writing). Generally this is done by hand several times during the season. Recently anti-suckering compounds have come into use.
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| − | At a certain stage of maturity, the plant will produce a flower cluster from its tip, as well as the tips of any suckers that remain on the plant. In order to divert more energy into the leaves, the plant is "topped" — the top is cut off.
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| − | ===Harvest===
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| − | [[Image:basma-tobacco-drying.jpg|thumb|[[Basma]] leaves drying in the sun at [[Pomak]] village of [[Xanthi]],[[Greece]]]]
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| − | Tobacco is harvested in one of two ways. In the oldest method, the entire plant is harvested at once by cutting off the stalk at the ground with a curved knife. In the nineteenth century, bright tobacco began to be harvested by pulling individual leaves off the stalk as they ripened. The leaves ripen from the ground upwards, so a field of tobacco may go through several "pullings" before the tobacco is entirely harvested, and the stalks may be turned into the soil. "Cropping" or "pulling" are terms for pulling leaves off tobacco. Leaves are cropped as they ripen, from the bottom of the stalk up. The first crop at the very bottom of the stalks are called "sand lugs", as they are often against the ground and are coated with dirt splashed up when it rains. Sand lugs weigh the most, and are most difficult to work with. Originally workers cropped the tobacco and placed it on mule-pulled sleds. Eventually tractors with wagons were used to transport leaves to the stringer, an apparatus which uses twine to sew leaves onto a stick .
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| − | Some farmers use "tobacco harvesters" - basically a trailer pulled behind a tractor. The harvester is a wheeled sled or trailer that has seats for the croppers to sit on and seats just in front of these for the "stringers" to sit on. The croppers pull the leaves off in handfuls, and pass these to the "stringer", who loops twine around the handfuls of tobacco and hangs them on a long wooden square pole. Traditionally, the croppers, down in the dark and wet, with their faces getting slapped by the huge tobacco leaves, were men, and the stringers seated on the higher elevated seats were women. The harvester has places for 4 teams of workers: 8 people cropping and stringing, plus a packer who takes the heavy strung poles of wet green tobacco from the stringers and packs them onto the pallet section of the harvester, plus a driver, making the total crew of each harvester 10 people. Interestingly, the outer seats are suspended from the harvester - slung out over to fit into the aisles of tobacco. As these seats are suspended it is important to balance the weight of the 2 outside teams (similar to a playground see-saw). Having too heavy or light a person in an unbalanced combination often results in the harvester tipping over especially when turning around at the end of a lane. Water tanks are a common feature on the harvester due to heat, and danger of de-hydration for the workers. Salt tablets sometimes get used as well.
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| − | ===Pests===
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| − | Pests of tobacco include the [[moth]]s ''[[Endoclita|Endoclita excrescens]]'', ''[[Manduca sexta]]'' (the [[Tobacco hornworm]]), and ''[[Manduca quinquemaculata]]''. Other [[Lepidoptera]] whose [[larva]]e use tobacco as a food plant include [[Angle Shades]], [[Cabbage Moth]], [[Mouse Moth]], [[Nutmeg (moth)|Nutmeg Moth]], [[Setaceous Hebrew Character]] and [[Turnip Moth]]. The dry tobacco leaves and [[cigarettes]] are sometimes used as food for the [[Cigarette Beetle]] (Lasioderma serricorne).
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| − | ===Curing===
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| − | [[Image:MyrtlefordVicTobaccoDryingHut.JPG|thumb|[[Myrtleford, Victoria]], Australia: historic tobacco kiln]]
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| − | Cut plants or pulled leaves are immediately transferred to tobacco barns (kiln houses), where they will be cured. Curing methods varies with the type of tobacco grown, and tobacco barn design varies accordingly. Air-cured tobacco is hung in well-ventilated barns and allowed to dry over a period of weeks. Fire-cured tobacco is hung in large barns where smoldering fires of hardwoods are kept burning. Flue-cured tobacco was originally strung onto tobacco sticks, which were hung from tier-poles in curing barns (Aus: [[kiln]]s, also traditionally called [http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/oast Oasts]). These barns have flues which run from externally-fed fire boxes, heat-curing the tobacco without exposing it to smoke. Traditional curing barns in the U.S. are falling into disuse, as the trend toward more efficient prefabricated metal "bulk bars", allows greater efficiency.
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| − | Curing and subsequent aging allows for the slow [[oxidation]] and degradation of [[carotenoid]]s in tobacco leaf. This produces certain compounds in the tobacco leaves very similar and give a sweet hay, [[tea]], [[rose oil]], or fruity aromatic flavor that contribute to the "smoothness" of the smoke. Starch is converted to sugar which [[glycation|glycates]] protein and is oxidized into [[advanced glycation endproduct]]s (AGEs), a [[caramelization]] process that also adds flavor. Inhalation of these AGEs in tobacco smoke contributes to [[atherosclerosis]] and [[cancer]]<ref>{{cite journal | author=Cerami C, Founds H, Nicholl I, Mitsuhashi T, Giordano D, Vanpatten S, Lee A, Al-Abed Y, Vlassara H, Bucala R, Cerami A | title=Tobacco smoke is a source of toxic reactive glycation products | journal=PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (PNAS) | volume=94 | issue=25 | year=1997 | pages=13915-20 | url=http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/94/25/13915 | id=PMID 9391127 }}</ref>.
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| − | Unaged or low quality tobacco is often flavoured with these naturally occurring compounds. Tobacco flavoring is a significant part of a multi-million dollar industry.
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| − | The aging process continues for a period of months and often extends into the post-curing process.
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| − | ===Post-cure processing===
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| − | After tobacco is cured, it is moved from the curing barn into a storage area for processing. If whole plants were cut, the leaves are removed from the tobacco stalks in a process called stripping. For both cut and pulled tobacco, the leaves are then sorted into different grades. In colonial times, the tobacco was then "prized" into hogsheads for transportation. In bright tobacco regions, prizing was replaced by stacking wrapped "hands" into loose piles to be sold at auction. Today, most cured tobacco is baled before sales under contract.
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| − | ==Other Types==
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| − | ===Aromatic Fire-cured===
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| − | Aromatic Fire-cured smoking tobacco is a robust variety of tobacco used as a condimental for pipe blends. It is cured by smoking over gentle fires. In the United States, it is grown in the western part of Tennessee, Western Kentucky and in [[Virginia]]. Latakia is produced from oriental varieties of ''N. tabacum''. The leaves are cured and smoked over smoldering fires of local hardwoods and aromatic shrubs in [[Cyprus]] and [[Syria]]. Latakia has a pronounced flavor and a very distinctive aroma, and is used in the so-called Balkan and English-style pipe tobacco blends.
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| − | Fire-cured tobacco grown in [[Kentucky]] and [[Tennessee]] is used in some chewing tobaccos, moist snuff, some cigarettes and as a condiment leaf in pipe tobacco blends. It has a rich, slightly floral taste, and adds body and aroma to the blend.
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| − | [[Image:Tobac grnhouse8980.JPG|frame|Mowing young tobacco in greenhouse of half million plants [[Hemingway, South Carolina]]]]
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| − | ===Brightleaf tobacco===
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| − | Prior to the [[American Civil War]], the tobacco grown in the US was almost entirely fire-cured dark-leaf. This was planted in fertile lowlands, used a robust variety of leaf, and was fire cured or air cured.
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| − | Sometime after the [[War of 1812]], demand for a milder, lighter, more aromatic tobacco arose. [[Ohio]] and [[Maryland]] both innovated quite a bit with milder varieties of the tobacco plant. Farmers around the country experimented with different curing processes. But the breakthrough didn't come until 1854.
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| − | [[Image:Ripe tobacco leaf 3037.JPG|300px|left|thumb|Brightleaf tobacco leaf ready for harvest. When it turns yellow-green the sugar content is at its peak, and it will cure to a deep golden color with mild taste.The leaves are harvested progressively up the stem from the base, as they ripen.]]
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| − | It had been noticed for centuries that sandy, highland soil produced thinner, weaker plants. Captain Abisha Slade, of [[Caswell County, North Carolina]] had a good deal of infertile, sandy soil, and planted the new "gold-leaf" varieties on it. Slade owned a slave, Stephen, who accidentally produced the first real bright tobacco. He used charcoal to restart a fire used to cure the crop. The surge of heat turned the leaves yellow. Using that discovery, Slade developed a system for producing bright tobacco, cultivating on poorer soils and using charcoal for heat-curing.
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| − | News spread through the area pretty quickly. The worthless sandy soil of the [[Appalachia]]n [[Piedmont (United States)|piedmont]] was suddenly profitable, and people rapidly developed flue-curing techniques, a more efficient way of smoke-free curing. By the outbreak of the War, the town of [[Danville, Virginia]] actually had developed a bright-leaf market for the surrounding area in [[Caswell County, North Carolina]] and [[Pittsylvania County, Virginia]].
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| − | Danville was also the main railway head for [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] soldiers going to the front. These brought bright tobacco with them from Danville to the lines, traded it with each other and Union soldiers, and developed quite a taste for it. At the end of the war, the soldiers went home and suddenly there was a national market for the local crop. Caswell and Pittsylvania counties were the only two counties in the South that experienced an ''increase'' in total wealth after the war.
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| − | [[Image:Tobacco blossom 1580.JPG|frame|Tobacco blossom: longtitudinal section [[Hemingway, South Carolina]]]]
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| − | ===White burley===
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| − | In [[1864]], George Webb of [[Brown County, Ohio]] planted Red [[Burley (tobacco)|Burley]] seeds he had purchased, and found that a few of the seedlings had a whitish, sickly look. He transplanted them to the fields anyway, where they grew into mature plants but retained their light color. The cured leaves had an exceedingly fine texture and were exhibited as a curiosity at the market in [[Cincinnati, Ohio|Cincinnati]]. The following year he planted ten acres (40,000 m²) from seeds from those plants, which brought a premium at auction. The air-cured leaf was found to be mild tasting and more absorbent than any other variety. ''White Burley'', as it was later called, became the main component in chewing tobacco, American blend pipe tobacco, and American-style cigarettes. The white part of the name is seldom used today, since red burley, a dark air-cured variety of the mid-1800s, no longer exists.
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| − | ===Shade tobacco===
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| − | It is not well known that the northern US state of [[Massachusetts]] is also one of the important tobacco-growing regions of the country. Long before [[Europe]]ans arrived in the area, Native Americans harvested wild tobacco plants that grew along the banks of the [[Connecticut River]]. Today, the Connecticut River valley north of [[Hartford, Connecticut|Hartford]], [[Massachusetts]] is known as [[Tobacco Valley]], and the fields and [[drying shed]]s are visible to travelers on the road. The tobacco grown here is known as [[shade tobacco]], and is used as outer wrappers for some of the world's finest [[cigar]]s.
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| − | Early Connecticut [[colonist]]s acquired from the Native Americans the habit of smoking tobacco in pipes and began cultivating the plant commercially, even though the [[Puritans]] referred to it as the "evil weed". The plant was outlawed in Connecticut in [[1650]], but in the [[1800]]s as [[cigar smoking]] began to be popular, tobacco farming became a major industry, employing farmers, laborers, local youths, southern African Americans, and migrant workers.
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| − | Working conditions varied from pleasant summer work for students, to backbreaking exploitation of migrants. Each tobacco plant yields only 18 leaves useful as cigar wrappers, and each leaf requires a great deal of individual manual attention after harvesting, some of which must be carried out in the [[drying shed]]s, where the temperature exceeds 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
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| − | In [[1921]], Connecticut tobacco production peaked, at 31,000 acres (125 km²) under [[cultivation]]. The rise of [[cigarette smoking]] and the decline of [[cigar smoking]] has caused a corresponding decline in the demand for shade tobacco, reaching a minimum in [[1992]] of 2,000 acres (8 km²) under cultivation. Since then, however, cigar smoking has become more popular again, and in [[1997]] tobacco farming had risen to 4,000 acres (16 km²). The industry has weathered some major [[catastrophe]]s, including a devastating [[hailstorm]] in [[1929]], and an epidemic of [[brown spot fungus]] in [[2000]].
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| − | ===Perique===
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| − | {{main |Perique}}
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| − | Perhaps the most strongly-flavored of all tobaccos is the Perique, from [[Saint James Parish, Louisiana|Saint James Parish]], [[Louisiana]]. When the Acadians made their way into this region in 1776, the [[Choctaw]] and [[Chickasaw]] tribes were cultivating a variety of tobacco with a distinctive flavor. A farmer called Pierre Chenet is credited with first turning this local tobacco into the Perique in 1824 through the technique of pressure-fermentation.
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| − | The tobacco plants are manually kept suckerless, and pruned to exactly 12 leaves, through their early growth. In late June, when the leaves are a dark, rich green and the plants are 24-30 inches (600 to 750 mm) tall, the whole plant is harvested in the late evening and hung to dry in a sideless curing barn. Once the leaves have partially dried, but while still supple (usually less than 2 weeks in the barn), any remaining dirt is removed and the leaves are moistened with water and stemmed by hand. The leaves are then rolled into "torquettes" of approximately 1 pound (450 g) and packed into [[hickory]] [[whiskey]] barrels. The tobacco is then kept under pressure using oak blocks and massive screw jacks, forcing nearly all the air out of the still-moist leaves. Approximately once a month, the pressure is released, and each of the torquettes is "worked" by hand to permit a little air back into the tobacco. After a year of this treatment, the Perique is ready for consumption, although it may be kept fresh under pressure for many years. Extended exposure to air degrades the particular character of the Perique. The finished tobacco is dark brown, nearly black, very moist with a fruity, slightly vinegary aroma.
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| − | Considered the [[truffle]] of [[smoking pipe|pipe]] tobaccos, the Perique is used as a component of many blended pipe tobaccos, but is too strong to be smoked pure. At one time, the freshly moist Perique was also chewed, but none is now sold for this purpose. Less than 16 acres (65,000 m²) of this crop remain in cultivation, most by a single farmer called Percy Martin, in Grande Pointe, Louisiana. For reasons unknown, the particular flavor and character of the Perique can only be acquired on a small triangle of Saint James Parish, less than 3 by 10 miles (5 by 16 km). Although at its peak, Saint James Parish was producing around 20 tons of the Perique a year, output is now merely a few barrelsful.
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| − | While traditionally a pipe tobacco (and still available from some specialist tobacconists), the Perique may now also be found in the Perique cigarettes of Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co., in an approximately 1 part to 5 blend with lighter tobaccos. A similar tobacco, based on pressure-fermented [[Kentucky]] tobacco is available by the name Acadian Green River Perique.
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| − | ==Tobacco products==
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| − | ===Snuff===
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| − | [[image:copenhagentin.jpg|thumb|right|Copenhagen snuff tin]]
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| − | Snuff is a generic term for fine-ground smokeless tobacco products. Originally the term referred only to dry snuff, a fine tan dust popular mainly in the eighteenth century. This is often called "Scotch Snuff", a folk-etymology
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| − | derivation of the scorching process used to dry the cured tobacco by the factory.
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| − | '''European''' (dry) snuff is intended to be ''sniffed'' up the nose. Snuff is not "snorted" due to the fact that snuff shouldn't get past the nose i.e.; into sinuses, throat or lungs. European snuff comes in several varieties: Plain, Toast (fine ground - ''very'' dry), "Medicated" (menthol, camphor, eucalyptus, etc.), Scented and Schmalzler (a German variety.) The major brand names of European snuff are: Bernards (Germany), Fribourg & Treyer (UK), Gawith (UK), Gawith Hoggarth (UK), Hedges (UK), Lotzbeck (Germany), McChrystal's (UK), Pöschl (Germany) and Wilsons of Sharrow (UK).
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| − | Snuff has even been found to be beneficial in some cases of hay fever due to the fact that the snuff may prevent allergens from getting to the mucus membrane within the nose.{{fact}}
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| − | '''American''' snuff is much stronger, and is intended to be dipped. It comes in two varieties — "sweet" and "salty". Until the early 20th century, snuff dipping was popular in the United States among rural people, who would often use sweet barkless twigs to apply it to their gums. Popular brands are [[Tube Rose]] and [[Navy]].
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| − | The second, and more popular in North America, variety of snuff is moist snuff, or [[dipping tobacco]]. This practice is known as "dipping." In the Southern states, taking a "dip" of moist snuff is called "putting a rub in," the moist snuff in the mouth is known as a "rub." This is occasionally referred to as "[[snoose]]" in New England and the Midwest and is derived from the Scandinavian word for snuff, "[[snus]]". Like the word, the origins of moist snuff are Scandinavian, and the oldest American brands indicate that by their names. American Moist snuff is made from dark fire-cured tobacco that is ground, sweetened, and aged by the factory. Prominent North American brands are [[Copenhagen tobacco|Copenhagen]], [[Skoal tobacco|Skoal]], [[Timber Wolf tobacco|Timber Wolf]], [[Chisholm tobacco|Chisholm]], [[Grizzly tobacco|Grizzly]], and [[Kodiak tobacco|Kodiak]]. American moist snuff tends to be dipped.
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| − | Some modern ''smokeless tobacco'' brands, such as Kodiak, have an aggressive nicotine delivery. This is accomplished with a higher dose of nicotine than cigarettes, a high [[pH]] level (which helps nicotine enter the blood stream faster), and a high portion of unprotonated (free base) nicotine.
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| − | It has been suggested by ''[[The Economist]]'' magazine that the [[Smoking ban|ban on smoking tobacco]] indoors in some areas, such as [[Britain]] and [[New York City]], may lead to a resurgence in the popularity of snuff as an alternative to tobacco smoking. Although the large-scale closure of British [[mining|mines]] in the 1980s deprived the snuff industry of its major market since snuff became unfashionable (miners took snuff underground instead of smoking to avoid lethal explosions and fires), sales at Britain's largest snuff retailer have reportedly been rising at about 5% per year. <ref name="Economist">[[The Economist]]: ''Thou shalt not inhale'', Issue 8465, February 18th, pg 28</ref>
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| − | ==== Chewing tobacco ====
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| − | {{main|Chewing tobacco}}
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| − | [[Image:Mailpouch8466.jpg|frame|[[Mail Pouch Tobacco Barn|Mail Pouch Barn]] advertisement: A bit of Americana in southern [[Ohio]]. Mail Pouch painted the barns for free.]]
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| − | Chewing is one of the oldest ways of consuming tobacco leaves. Native Americans in both North and South America chewed the leaves of the plant, frequently mixed with lime. Modern chewing tobacco is produced in three forms: twist, plug, and scrap. A few manufacturers in the [[United Kingdom]] produce particularly strong twist tobacco meant for use in [[smoking pipe]]s rather than chewing. These twists are not mixed with lime although they may be flavored with whisky, rum, cherry or other flavors common to pipe tobacco.
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| − | Twist is the oldest form. One to three high-quality leaves are braided and twisted into a rope while green, and then are cured in the same manner as other tobacco. Originally devised by sailors due to fire hazards of smoking at sea; and until recently this was done by farmers for their personal consumption in addition to other tobacco intended for sale. Modern twist is occasionally lightly sweetened. It is still sold commercially, but rarely seen outside of [[Appalachia]]. Popular brands are Mammoth Cave, Moore's Red Leaf, and Cumberland Gap. Users cut a piece off the twist and chew it, expectorating.
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| − | Plug chewing tobacco is made by pressing together cured tobacco leaves in a sweet (often [[molasses]]-based) syrup. Originally this was done by hand, but since the second half of the [[19th century]] leaves were pressed between large tin sheets. The resulting sheet of tobacco is cut into plugs. Like twist, consumers sometimes cut, but more often bite off a piece of the plug to chew. Major brands are Days O Work and Cannonball.
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| − | Scrap, or looseleaf chewing tobacco, was originally the excess of plug manufacturing. It is sweetened like plug tobacco, but sold loose in bags rather than a plug. Looseleaf is by far the most popular form of chewing tobacco. Popular brands are [[Red Man]], Beechnut, Mail Pouch and Southern Pride. Looseleaf chewing tobacco can also be dipped.
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| − | During the peak of popularity of chewing tobacco in the Western [[United States]] in the late 19th century, [[spittoon]]s were a common device for users to spit into.
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| − | ====Snus====
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| − | {{main|snus}}
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| − | Swedish [[snus]] is different in that it is made from steam-cured tobacco, rather than fire-cured, and its [[snus#Health consequences|health effects]] are markedly different, with epidemiological studies showing dramatically lower rates of cancer and other tobacco-related health problems than cigarettes, American "[[Tobacco#Chewing Tobacco|Chewing Tobacco]]", Indian [[Gutka]] or African varieties. Prominent Swedish brands are [[Swedish Match]], [[Ettan]], and [[Tre Ankare]]. In the Scandinavian countries, moist snuff comes either in loose powder form, to be pressed into a small ball or ovoid either by hand or with the use of a special tool. It is sometimes packaged in small bags, suitable for placing inside the upper lip, called "portion snuff". In the United States, the Skoal brand of moist snuff distributes a similar product, packed with standard american moist snuff, often flavored with fruits or liquors; these small bags are called "Skoal Bandits." These small bags keep the loose tobacco from becoming lodged between the user's teeth; they also generate less spittle when in contact with mucous membranes inside the mouth which extends the usage time of the tobacco product.
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| − | Since it is not smoked, snuff in general generates less of the nitrosamines and other carcinogens in the tar that forms from the partially anaerobic reactions in the smoldering smoked tobacco. The steam curing of snus rather than fire-curing or flue-curing of other smokeless tobaccos has been demonstrated to generate even fewer of such compounds than other varieties of snuff; 2.8 parts per mil for ''Ettan'' brand compared to as high as 127.9 parts per mil in American brands, according to a study by the State of [[Massachusetts]] Health Department. It is hypothesized that the widespread use of snus by Swedish men (estimated at 30% of Swedish men, possibly because it is much cheaper than cigarettes), displacing tobacco smoking and other varieties of snuff, is responsible for the incidence of tobacco-related mortality in men being significantly lower in Sweden than any other European country. In contrast, since women are much less likely to use snus, their rate of tobacco-related deaths in Sweden is similar to that in other European countries. Snus is clearly less harmful than other tobacco products; according to [[Kenneth Warner]], director of the [[University of Michigan]] Tobacco Research Network,
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| − | :"The Swedish government has studied this stuff to death, and to date, there is no compelling evidence that it has any adverse health consequences. ... Whatever they eventually find out, it is dramatically less dangerous than smoking."
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| − | Public health researchers maintain that, nevertheless, even the low nitrosamine levels in snus cannot be completely risk free, but snus proponents maintain that inasmuch as snus is used as a substitute for smoking or a means to quit smoking, the net overall effect is positive, similar to the effect of [[nicotine patch]]es, for instance. Snus is banned in the [[European Union]] countries outside of Sweden (regular snus, not portion, is allowed in Denmark and snus is also becoming a regular among Norwegians, as cigarettes are seen by Norwegian popular culture as untrendy and much more unhealthy than snus). Although this is officially for health reasons, it is widely regarded, in fact, as being for economic reasons, since other smokeless tobacco products (mainly from [[India]]) associated with much greater risk to health are sold too.
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| − | Although it lacks the carcinogenicity of high levels of nitrosamines, however, any harmful effects of nicotine will still be seen with snus usage. Current research concentrates on nicotine's effect on the circulatory system and on the pancreas.
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| − | On [[June 11]], [[2006]], [[Reynolds Tobacco]] announced that it would be test marketing Camel brand snus in [[Portland, Oregon]] and [[Austin, Texas]] by the end of the month. The product would be manufactured in Sweden, in conjunction with [[British American Tobacco]], manufacturers of BAT snus. [http://www.salem-news.com/articles/june112006/smokeless_ashtrays_61106.php]
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| − | ===Gutka===
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| − | [[Image:Gutkapouch.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Gutka pouches on sale.]]
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| − | [[Gutka]] is a tobacco product manufactured and used mainly in [[India]]. It contains [[sweetener]]s, food coloring and [[paan]] [[flavoring]]s . It is used by constantly chewing without swallowing the juices and then spitting the juices out once the mouth is full of the liquid. This results in the walls of most public buildings to be covered in red stains called pichkari, especially in areas where males from lower income levels congregate.
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| − | ===Creamy snuff===
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| − | [[Creamy snuff]] is a tobacco paste, consisting of tobacco, clove oil, glycerin, spearmint, menthol, and camphor, and sold in a toothpaste tube. It is marketed mainly to women in [[India]], and is known by the brand names [[Ipco]] (made by [[Asha Industries]]), [[Denobac]], [[Tona]], [[Ganesh]]. According to the U.S [[NIH]]-sponsored [http://dccps.nci.nih.gov/TCRB/stfact_sheet_combined10-23-02.pdf 2002 Smokeless Tobacco Fact Sheet], it is marketed as a [[dentifrice]]. The same factsheet also mentions that it is "often used to clean teeth. The manufacturer recommends letting the paste linger in the mouth before rinsing."
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| − | ===Tobacco water===
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| − | [[Tobacco water]] is a traditional [[organic farming|organic]] [[insecticide]] used in domestic [[gardening]]. Tobacco dust can be used similarly.
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| − | It is produced by boiling strong tobacco in water, or by steeping the tobacco in water for a longer period. When cooled the mixture can be applied as a spray, or 'painted' on to the leaves of garden plants, where it will prove deadly to insects.
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| − | [[Basque people|Basque]] ''angulero'' fishermen kill immature [[eel]]s (elvers) in an [[infusion]] of tobacco leaves before [[parboil]]ing them in salty water for transportation to market as ''angulas'', a seasonal delicacy.[http://www.buber.net/Basque/Food/food1.html]
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| − | ==References==
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| − | <div style="font-size:small;">
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| − | <references />
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| − | </div>
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| − | ==Bibliography==
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| − | * Breen, T. H. (1985). ''Tobacco Culture''. Princeton Univerisity Press. ISBN 0-691-00596-6. ''Source on tobacco culture in eighteenth-century Virginia pp. 46-55''
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| − | * W.K. Collins and S.N. Hawks. "Principles of Flue-Cured Tobacco Production" 1st Edition, 1993
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| − | * Fuller, R. Reese (Spring 2003). Perique, the Native Crop. ''Louisiana Life''.
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| − | * Gately, Iain. ''Tobacco: A Cultural History of How an Exotic Plant Seduced Civilization.'' Grove Press, 2003. ISBN 0-8021-3960-4.
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| − | * Graves, John. "Tobacco that is not Smoked" in ''From a Limestone Ledge'' (the sections on snuff and chewing tobacco) ISBN 0-394-51238-3
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| − | * Killebrew, J. B. and Myrick, Herbert (1909). ''Tobacco Leaf: Its Culture and Cure, Marketing and Manufacture.'' Orange Judd Company. ''Source for flea beetle typology (p. 243)''
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| − | * Poche, L. Aristee (2002). ''Perique tobacco: Mystery and history''.
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| − | * Tilley, Nannie May. ''The Bright Tobacco Industry 1860-1929'' ISBN 0-405-04728-2. ''Source on flea beetle prevention (pp. 39-43), and history of flue-cured tobacco''
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| | | | |
| | ==References== | | ==References== |
| − | *Borio, G., 2006, "The Tobacco Timeline", ''Tobacco.org''[http://www.tobacco.org/resources/history/Tobacco_History.html/] | + | * Borio, G., 2006. ''[http://www.tobacco.org/resources/history/Tobacco_History.html The Tobacco Timeline]''. Tobacco.org. |
| − | *Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 2006, "History of the 1964 Surgeon General's Report on Smoking and Health" [http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/30yrsgen.htm] | + | * Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 2004. ''History of the 1964 Surgeon General's Report on Smoking and Health''. [http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/30yrsgen.htm] |
| − | *Gibson, A.C., 2006, "The Filthy Weed", University of California Los Angeles[http://www.botgard.ucla.edu/html/botanytextbooks/economicbotany/Nicotiana] | + | * Fisher, E. B. 1998. ''7 Steps to a Smoke-Free Life'', New York: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0471247006 |
| − | | + | * Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). 2003. ''Projections of Tobacco Production, Consumption and Trade to the Year 2010''. [http://www.fao.org/docrep/006/y4956e/y4956e00.htm#Contents] |
| − | ==External links==
| + | * Gibson, A. C. 2006. ''The Filthy Weed''. University of California, Los Angeles. [http://www.botgard.ucla.edu/html/botanytextbooks/economicbotany/Nicotiana] |
| − | * [http://www.tobacco.org/ Latest news on tobacco and smoking issues] | + | * International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS). 2006. ''[http://www.inchem.org/documents/pims/plant/nicotab.htm Nicotiana tabacum]''. |
| − | * [http://www.tobacco.org/resources/history/Tobacco_History.html/ Timeline of tobacco history]
| + | * International Tobacco Growers' Association (ITGA). 2006.''[http://www.tobaccoleaf.org/index.asp Tobacco Types]''. |
| − | * [http://www.stogiefresh.com/ Stogie Fresh: The art and science of storing and aging cigars] | + | * James I of England. 1604. ''[http://www.la.utexas.edu/research/poltheory/james/blaste/ A Counterblaste to Tobacco]''. |
| − | * [http://www.cigarenvy.com/ Cigar Envy: Reviews, feature stories, news and information on cigars.] | + | * National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). 2006.''[http://www.nida.nih.gov/researchreports/nicotine/nicotine.html Tobacco Addiction]'' |
| − | * [http://www.plot55.com/growing/nicotiana.html Growing Nicotiana species (Plot55.com)]
| + | * Plants for a Future (PFF). 2006. ''[http://www.pfaf.org/database/plants.php?Nicotiana+tabacum Nicotiana tabacum]''. ''Plants for a Future''. Retrieved September 17, 2008. |
| − | * [http://caliban.mpiz-koeln.mpg.de/~stueber/thome/band4/tafel_033.html Image of Nicotiana tabacum from 'Flora von Deutschland Österreich und der Schweiz']
| + | * Stuart, D. 2004 ''Dangerous Garden''. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 067401104 |
| − | * [http://www.liberherbarum.com/Pn0500.HTM Nicotiana tabacum at Liber Herbarum II] | + | * United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). 2006. [http://plants.usda.gov/java/ClassificationServlet?source=display&classid=NICOT ''Nicotiana Plants Classification Report]'' |
| − | * [http://www.pfaf.org/database/plants?Nicotiana+tabacum Nicotiana tabacum at Plants for a Future]
| |
| − | * [http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/research_data/survey/mm4819fs.htm Nicotine, pH, and Moisture Content of Six U.S. Commercial Moist Snuff Products [[Centers for Disease Control and Prevention|CDC]] tobacco research]
| |
| − | * [http://www-cie.iarc.fr/htdocs/indexes/vol83index.html Tobacco Smoke and Involuntary Smoking, Summary of Data Reported and Evaluation 2004] by the [[International Agency for Research on Cancer|IARC]]. | |
| − | * [http://www.greenfacts.org/tobacco/ A summary of the IARC report] by [[GreenFacts]].
| |
| − | * [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3300769.stm BBC report on questions re European Union partial ban on some smokeless tobacco products (''i.e.'' snus)]
| |
| − | * [http://www.tobaccoheritage.com/ History of U.S. tobacco farming and commercialization]
| |
| − | * [http://fact-sheets.com/plants/2006/05/scientists-search-for-healthy-uses-for.html Scientists Search for Healthy Uses for Tobacco] | |
| − | * [http://historyofalcoholanddrugs.typepad.com/alcohol_and_drugs_history/tobacco/index.html Tobacco news page] - [[Alcohol and Drugs History Society]]
| |
| | | | |
| − | ==Notes==
| |
| − | <references/>
| |
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| | {{credit|72776996}} | | {{credit|72776996}} |
| − | [[Category: Life sciences]] | + | [[Category:Life sciences]] |
| | + | [[Category:Food]] |
| Tobacco
|
Nicotiana tabacum
|
| Scientific classification
|
| Kingdom: |
Plantae
|
| Division: |
Magnoliophyta
|
| Class: |
Magnoliopsida
|
| Order: |
Solanales
|
| Family: |
Solanaceae
|
| Genus: |
Nicotiana
L.
|
|
| Species
|
|
N. acuminata
N. alata
N. attenuata
N. benthamiana
N. clevelandii
N. excelsior
N. forgetiana
N. glauca
N. glutinosa
N. langsdorffii
N. longiflora
N. obtusifolia
N. paniculata
N. plumbagifolia
N. quadrivalvis
N. repanda
N. rustica
N. suaveolens
N. sylvestris
N. tabacum
N. tomentosa
Ref: ITIS 30562
as of August 26, 2005
|
The word tobacco may refer either to the various species of broad-leafed plants comprising the genus Nicotiana of the nightshade family, or to the dried leaves of these plants. The dried and cured leaves of tobacco plants are smoked and consumed in other ways as a source of the alkaloid drug nicotine, a powerful neurotoxin that is particularly harmful to insects.
More than 20 species of tobacco plants have been identified. Among these, the most important economically to humans is cultivated tobacco, Nicotiana tabacum.
Tobacco use has had a tremendous impact on history and society all over the world, especially in the last five hundred years. Today, its use is considered a health hazard and one of the leading causes of disease and death in the world. These problems reflect aspects of human and social responsibility. For consumers, any perceived benefit or short-term gratification carries with it the risk of long-term, serious repercussions. For those promoting tobacco consumption, even among youth, in order to gain monetary profit, the actions represent a lack of social responsibility and a deviation from the religious precept of living for the sake of others.
The tobacco plant
Tobacco is a member of the nightshade family, Solanaceae, along with potatoes (Solanum tuberosum), tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum), mandrakes (Mandragora officinarum), and deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna). There are about 67 species in the Nicotiana genus, located in America (largely in Andean South America and Mexico), Australia, South Pacific Islands, and one in Namibia (Hyde and Wursten 2008).
The tobacco plant is an annual (or sometimes perennial) herb growing about 1-2 meters (3-7 feet) tall. Nicotiana tabacum has about 20 large leaves, each one about 60-75 cm (24-30 inches) long and 38-46 cm (15-18 inches) wide. Tobacco plants flower in summer producing white, purple, pink, or red flowers which are most often pollinated by moths. One plant can produce up to a million seeds. Tobacco plants require warm climate and high humidity to grow well. They can grow on poor soil, but do not do well if there is too much nitrogen in the soil (IPCS 2006).
Nicotine
The roots of the tobacco plant produce a substance called nicotine, which is stored mainly in the leaves. Nicotine is a powerful poison and seems to benefit the plant by protecting it from insects, working by attacking the junctions between the insects' nerve cells (Stuart 2004). Tobacco leaves are sometimes soaked or boiled and the water sprayed on other plants as an organic insecticide. Nicotine is also a deadly poison to humans. Two to four drops (pure nicotine is an oily liquid) are a fatal dose for an adult. Smoking and chewing tobacco results in a much smaller dose; however, people have died as a result of mistaking wild tobacco for an edible herb and boiling and eating a large quantity (IPCS 2006).
Nicotine is also a powerful psychochemical, which acts on the nervous system. In large doses it can be a hallucinogen. In smaller doses it affects the functioning of the nervous system in various ways, as well as affecting the circulatory and endocrine systems. These effects are considered pleasurable and desirable by tobacco users. Dr. Edwin Fisher writes: "Nicotine is a pretty remarkable drug. It works in many different situations. If you're feeling tense, nicotine relaxes you. If you're feeling drowsy, nicotine increases your alertness. If you're feeling sad, it elevates your mood. If you're feeling hungry, it calms your hunger pangs" (Fisher 1998).
While nicotine is prominent in tobacco plants, it is also found in lower quantities in tomato, potato, eggplant (aubergine), green pepper, and the coca plant.
Cultivation and uses
Tobacco was first used by Native Americans and began to be cultivated about eight thousand years ago in South America. Nicotiana tobacum is not found wild and may be a hybrid of other species. Its use and cultivation spread throughout most of South and North America.
One of the most important early uses of tobacco was as a hallucinogen in shamanistic rituals (Borio 2006). It was also used for medical reasons; including the treatment of rheumatic swelling, skin diseases, and scorpion stings (PFF 2006). After a time, the smoking of dried tobacco leaves in clay pipes or rolled as cigars became common in some Native American societies. Several tobacco species were used including "Aztec tobacco" (Nicotiana rustica).
Tobacco leaves were given to Christopher Columbus by the people of the West Indies in 1492. However, he did not understand their purpose. It is said that Rodrigo de Jerez, one of Columbus's crew, was the first European to smoke tobacco. Ramon Pane, a Catholic monk who came on Columbus's second voyage to the New World in 1493, wrote an account of tobacco use and is credited with introducing it to Europe. Over the next one hundred years, tobacco cultivation and use spread around the world; mainly by Spanish, Portuguese, and English sailors (Borio 2006).
Dried tobacco leaves were smoked in pipes or chewed. In the 1600s snuff, powered tobacco which was inhaled, became popular among the upper classes. In the 1800s and 1900s, cigars (leaves rolled inside other leaves) and cigarettes (leaves rolled in paper), became the most popular ways to use tobacco.
The cultivation of tobacco is labor intensive. The seeds are sown in a seedbed and after sprouting are transplanted to the field where they will grow. After a while the side shoots and flowers are cut off to encourage more growth of the leaves. When the leaves are ready to be harvested the plant is cut down or the individual leaves cut off the plant by hand. Then they are taken to barns where they are hung up to dry, either by air or with the help of fire. After that, they are baled for shipment to market.
This 1670 painting shows enslaved Africans working in the tobacco sheds of a colonial tobacco plantation
Starting in the mid 1600s, the English colonies in North America became one of the world's most important tobacco growing regions. The high value of tobacco and the amount of labor required to grow it were important factors which led to the establishment of slavery in the colonies. Conflicts over the taxation and regulation of the trade of tobacco were sources of conflict between the colonies and England, which contributed to the onset of the American Revolution in 1776 (Borio 2006).
Health concerns
As the use of tobacco grew, some people became concerned about its possible ill effects on the health of its users. One of the first was King James I of England. In 1604 he wrote "A Counterblaste to Tobacco" in which he asked his subjects:
Have you not reason then to bee ashamed, and to forbeare this filthie noveltie, so basely grounded, so foolishly received and so grossely mistaken in the right use thereof? In your abuse thereof sinning against God, harming your selves both in persons and goods, and raking also thereby the markes and notes of vanitie upon you: by the custome thereof making your selves to be wondered at by all forraine civil Nations, and by all strangers that come among you, to be scorned and contemned. A custome lothsome to the eye, hatefull to the Nose, harmefull to the braine, dangerous to the Lungs, and in the blacke stinking fume thereof, neerest resembling the horrible Stigian smoke of the pit that is bottomelesse. (James 1604)
In 1761 English doctor John Hill published "Cautions against the Immoderate Use of Snuff" in which he warned snuff users that they were vulnerable to cancers of the nose. In 1795, American Samuel Thomas von Soemmering reported on cancers of the lip in pipe smokers. In 1912, American Dr. Isaac Adler was the first to strongly suggest that lung cancer is related to smoking. In 1929 Fritz Lickint of Dresden, Germany published the first formal statistical evidence of a lung cancer–tobacco link, based on a study showing that lung cancer sufferers were likely to be smokers. Lickint also argued that tobacco use was the best way to explain the fact that lung cancer struck men four or five times more often than women (since women smoked much less) (Borio 2006).
The cigarette is now the most common form of tobacco use
In 1964 Luther L. Terry, M.D., Surgeon General of the United States Public Health Service, released the report of the Surgeon General's Advisory Committee on Smoking and Health. It was based on over seven thousand scientific articles that linked tobacco use with cancer and other diseases. This report led to laws requiring warning labels on tobacco products and to restrictions on tobacco advertisements. From this time, Americans became much more aware of the dangers of tobacco and its use in the United States began to decline. By 2004, nearly half of all Americans who had ever smoked had quit (CDC 2004).
Tobacco use has also been shown to be associated with cancers of the mouth, pharynx, larynx, esophagus, stomach, pancreas, cervix, kidney, ureter, and bladder; as well as tied to leukemia, cataracts, pneumonia, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, stroke, heart attack, vascular disease, and aneurysm. It is estimated that around 440,000 Americans die of tobacco related diseases each year. Significantly shorter life expectancies have been associated with tobacco smoking. It is very difficult for many people to quit tobacco use because of the addictive nature of nicotine itself (NIDA 2006).
A lethal dose of nicotine is contained in as little as one half of a cigar or three cigarettes; however, only a fraction of the nicotine contained in these products is actually released into the smoke, and most clinically significant cases of nicotine poisoning are the result of concentrated forms of the compound used as insecticides. Other active alkaloids in tobacco include harmala alkaloids.
The substantially increased risk of developing cancer as a result of tobacco usage seems to be due to the plethora of nitrosamines and other carcinogenic compounds found in tobacco and its residue as a result of anaerobic heating, either due to smoking or to flue-curing or fire-curing. The use of flue-cured or fire-cured smokeless tobacco in lieu of smoked tobacco reduces the risk of respiratory cancers but still carries significant risk of oral cancer. In contrast, use of steam-cured chewing tobacco (snus), avoids the carcinogenicity by not generating nitrosamines, but the negative effects of the nicotine on the cardiovascular system and pancreas are not ameliorated.
Present and future status
Tobacco is the largest non-food crop by monetary value in the world today. Although its use in the United States is lessening, worldwide use is expanding partly due to expanding population and partly to expanding income in many nations. China is both the largest grower (producing 2.51 million metric tons in 2005) and the largest consumer of tobacco today. [[[Brazil]] (0.88 million metric tons in 2005), [India]] (0.60), and the United States (0.29) are the next three largest growers. There are many other tobacco growing nations and it is consumed in every nation. European nations are the largest importers of tobacco. In 2003, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations predicted that tobacco use would continue to expand at least through 2010 (FAO 2003).
Governments around the world, and the United Nations and other organizations, are trying to discourage the use of tobacco because of its ill effects on the health and prosperity of people and communities. Tobacco advocates, such as those working in the tobacco industry, point out the benefits of tobacco growing to small farmers and urge governments not to take drastic action to curb its production (ITGA 2006).
References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Borio, G., 2006. The Tobacco Timeline. Tobacco.org.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 2004. History of the 1964 Surgeon General's Report on Smoking and Health. [1]
- Fisher, E. B. 1998. 7 Steps to a Smoke-Free Life, New York: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0471247006
- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). 2003. Projections of Tobacco Production, Consumption and Trade to the Year 2010. [2]
- Gibson, A. C. 2006. The Filthy Weed. University of California, Los Angeles. [3]
- International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS). 2006. Nicotiana tabacum.
- International Tobacco Growers' Association (ITGA). 2006.Tobacco Types.
- James I of England. 1604. A Counterblaste to Tobacco.
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). 2006.Tobacco Addiction
- Plants for a Future (PFF). 2006. Nicotiana tabacum. Plants for a Future. Retrieved September 17, 2008.
- Stuart, D. 2004 Dangerous Garden. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 067401104
- United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). 2006. Nicotiana Plants Classification Report
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