TOBACCO

TOBACCO

Tobacco is a plant prepared from the leaves of the tobacco plant by curing them. The plant is part of the genus Nicotiana and of the Solanacea (night shade) family. While the chief commercial crop is N.tabacum. The more potent variant N.rustica is also used around the world.

Botanical Name:                 Tobacco

Source Plant:                       Nicotiana

Part of Plant:                       Leaf

Geographical origin:          South America

Active Ingredients:             Nicotine, harmine

Uses:                                      Recreational

Tobacco contains the alkaloid nicotine which is a stimulant, dried tobacco leaves are mainly used for smoking in cigarette, pipe tobacco, cigars and flavoured shisha tobacco. They can also be consumed as snuff, chewing tobacco, dipping and tobacco.

Tobacco use is a risk factor for many diseases, especially those affecting the heart, liver and lungs as well as many cancers. In 2008, the world Health Organization (WHO) named tobacco as the world’s simple greatest cause of preventable death.

Nicotine which is the compound, responsible for the addictive nature of tobacco use.

Many species of tobacco are in the genus of herbs Nicotiana. It is part of the night shade (Solanaceae) indigenous to North and South America, Australia, South West Africa and the South pacific. Many plants contain nicotine, a powerful neurotoxin to insects. However, tobaccos contain a higher concentration of nicotine than most other plants. Unlike many other solanaceae species, they do not contain tropane alkaloids, which are often poisonous to humans and other animals.

Despite containing enough nicotine and other compounds such as germacrene and anabasine and other piperidine alkaloids (varying between species) to deter most herbivores, a number of such animals have evolved the ability to feed on Nicotiana species without being harmed. Nonetheless, tobacco is unpalable to many species and accordingly some tobacco plants (N.glauca) have become established as invasive weeds in some places.

Types of Tobacco

There are many types and varieties of tobacco which include Aromatic fire cured tobacco, Bright leaf tobacco, Burley tobacco, Criollo tobacco, Dokha and wild tobacco.

·        Aromatic fire cured tobacco: This is a variety of tobacco used as a condimental for pipe blend. It is cured by smoke from open fires. In the United States, it is grown in northern middle Tennessee, Central Kentucky and Virginia. Fire cured tobacco grown in Kentucky and Tennessee is used in some chewing tobacco moist stuff, some cigarettes and as a condiment leaf in pipe tobacco blend. Another fire cured tobacco is latakia, which is produced from oriental varieties of N.tabacum. The leaves are cured and smoked over smoldering fires of local hard woods and aromatic shrubs in Cyprus and Syria.

·        Bright leaf tobacco: This is commonly known as Virginia tobacco often regardless of the state where it is planted. Prior to the American civil war most tobacco grown in the US was fire cured dark leaf, sometime after the war of 1812, demand for a milder, lighter more aromatic tobacco arose. Bright leaf tobacco leads to ready for harvest when it turns yellow-green, the sugar content is at its peak and it will cure to a deep golden colour with mild taste. The leaves are harvested progressively up the stem from the base as the ripen. 

Burley tobacco: This is an air cured tobacco used primarily for cigarette production. In the US burley tobacco plants are started from pelletized seeds placed in polystyrene trays floated on a bed of fertilized water in March or April.

Criollo tobacco: This is primarily used in the making of cigars. It was by most accounts one of the original Cuban tobacco that emerged around the time of Columbus.
Dokha: This is a tobacco originally grown in Iran, mixed with leaves, bark and herbs for smoking in a mid wakih.

Wild tobacco: This is native to the Southwestern United State, Mexico and parts of South America. Its botanical name is Nicotiana rustica.