Tobacco

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Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) is an herbaceous plant cultivated around the world for its leaves, which can be rolled into cigars, shredded for cigarettes and pipes, processed for chewing, or ground into snuff. Tobacco leaves are the source of commercial nicotine, a component of many pesticides. The tobacco plant is fast-growing with a stem from 4–8 ft (1–3 m) in height.

Native to the Americas, tobacco was cultivated by Native Americans, and Christopher Columbus found them using it in much the same manner as today. American Indians believed it to possess medicinal properties, and it was important in the ceremonies of the plains tribes.

Tobacco was introduced into Europe in the mid-1500s on the basis of its purported medicinal qualities. Tobacco culture by European settlers in America began in 1612 at Jamestown, and it soon became the chief commodity exchanged by colonists for articles manufactured in Europe.

The leading tobacco-growing countries in the world today are China and the United States, followed by India, Brazil, and Turkey, as well as certain countries in the former Soviet Union. Although about one-third of the annual production in the United States is exported, the country also imports about half as much tobacco as it exports. The leading tobacco-growing state is North Carolina, followed by Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia.

Nicotine occurs in tobacco along with related alkaloids and organic acids such as malic and citric. Nicotine content is determined by the species, variety, and strain of tobacco; it is also affected by the growing conditions, methods of culture and cure, and the position on the plant from which the leaves are taken. Tobacco is high in ash content, which can range from 15–25% of the leaf. Flue-cured tobacco is rich in sugar, and cigar tobaccos are high in nitrogenous compounds but almost free of starch and sugars.

Most tobacco products are manufactured by blending various types of leaves, as well as leaves of different origins, grades, and crop years. Cigarette manufacturers usually add sweetening preparations and other flavorings, but the preparation of tobaccos for pipe smoking and chewing is as varied as the assortment of products themselves. Snuff is made by fermenting fire-cured leaves and stems and grinding them before adding salts and other flavorings. Cigars are made by wrapping a binder leaf around a bunch of cut filler leaf and overwrapping with a fine wrapper leaf.

In the United States and elsewhere, stems and scraps of tobacco are used for nicotine extractions. They can also be ground down and made into a reconstituted sheet in a process like papermaking, which is used as a substitute cigar binder or wrapper or cut to supplement the natural tobacco in cigarettes.

Agricultural Chemicals; Cigarette Smoke; Respiratory Diseases

Chandler, W. U. Banishing Tobacco. Washington, DC: Worldwatch Institute, 1986.

Heise, L. "Unhealthy Alliance: With U.S. Government Help, Tobacco Firms Push Their Goods Overseas." World Watch (September-October 1988): 19–28.

National Academy of Sciences. Environmental Tobacco Smoke: Measuring Exposures and Assessing Health Effects. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1986.

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