Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus Nicotiana of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. Seventy-nine species of tobacco are known, but the chief commercial crop is N. tabacum. The more potent variant N. rustica is also used in some countries.
Dried tobacco leaves are mainly used for smoking in cigarettes and cigars, as well as pipes and shishas. They can also be consumed as snuff, chewing tobacco, dipping tobacco, and snus.
Tobacco contains the highly addictive stimulant alkaloid nicotine as well as harmala alkaloids. Due to the widespread availability and legality of tobacco, nicotine is one of the most widely used recreational drugs. Tobacco use is a cause or risk factor for many deadly diseases, especially those affecting the heart, liver, and lungs, as well as many cancers. In 2008, the World Health Organization named tobacco use as the world's single greatest preventable cause of death.
Etymology The English word tobacco originates from the Spanish word . The precise origin of this word is disputed, but it is generally thought to have derived, at least in part, from Taíno, the Arawakan language of the Caribbean. In Taíno, it was said to mean either a roll of tobacco leaves (according to Bartolomé de las Casas, 1552), or to , a kind of Y-shaped pipe used for sniffing tobacco smoke (according to Oviedo, with the leaves themselves being referred to as ). Another version suggests that the term tobacco comes from the indigenous people of Tabasco, Mexico, who smoked it.
History
Cultural significance According to Haudenosaunee mythology, tobacco first grew out of Earth Woman's head after she died giving birth to her twin sons, Sapling and Flint.
Traditional use
Tobacco has long been used in the Americas, with some cultivation sites in Mexico dating back to 1400–1000 BCE.Goodman, Jordan. Tobacco in History and Culture: An Encyclopedia (Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2005). Many Native American tribes traditionally grow and use tobacco. Historically, people from the Northeast Woodlands cultures have carried tobacco in pouches as a readily accepted trade item. It was smoked both socially and ceremonially, such as to seal a peace treaty or trade agreement.e.g. Heckewelder, History, Manners and Customs of the Indian Nations who Once Inhabited Pennsylvania, p. 149 ff."They smoke with excessive eagerness ... men, women, girls and boys, all find their keenest pleasure in this way." – Dièreville describing the Mi'kmaq, circa 1699 in Port Royal. In some Native cultures, tobacco is seen as a gift from the Creator, with the ceremonial tobacco smoke carrying one's thoughts and prayers to the Creator.
Some Native Americans consider tobacco to be a medicine and advocate for its respectful usage, rather than a commercial one.
Popularization
Following the arrival of the Europeans to the Americas, tobacco became increasingly popular as a trade item. In 1559, Francisco Hernández de Toledo, Spanish chronicler of the Indies, was the first European to bring tobacco seeds to the Old World, following orders of King Philip II of Spain. These seeds were planted in the outskirts of Toledo, more specifically in an area known as "Los Cigarrales" named after the continuous plagues of cicadas ( in Spanish). The word cigar originally derives from the Mayan sikar ("to smoke rolled tobacco leaves"). Before the development of the lighter Virginia and white burley strains of tobacco, the smoke was too harsh to be inhaled. Small quantities were smoked at a time, using a pipe like the midwakh or kiseru, or newly invented waterpipes such as the bong or the hookah (see thuốc lào for a modern continuance of this practice). Tobacco became so popular that the English colony of Jamestown used it as currency and began exporting it as a cash crop; tobacco is often credited as being the export that saved Virginia from ruin. While a lucrative product, the growing expansion of tobacco demand was intimately tied to the history of slavery in the Caribbean.
The alleged benefits of tobacco also contributed to its success. The astronomer Thomas Harriot, who accompanied Sir Richard Grenville on his 1585 expedition to Roanoke Island, thought that the plant "openeth all the pores and passages of the body" so that the bodies of the natives "are notably preserved in health, and know not many grievous diseases, wherewithal we in England are often times afflicted."
Production of tobacco for smoking, chewing, and snuffing became a major industry in Europe and its colonies by 1700.Eric Burns, The Smoke of the Gods: A Social History of Tobacco (2006), A popular history focused on the US.Jordan Goodman, Tobacco in History: The Cultures of Dependence (1993), A scholarly history worldwide.
Tobacco has been a major cash crop in Cuba and in other parts of the Caribbean since the 18th century. Cuban cigars are world-famous.Charlotte Cosner, The Golden Leaf: How Tobacco Shaped Cuba and the Atlantic World (Vanderbilt University Press; 2015)
Cigarettes became increasingly popular in the late 19th century when James Bonsack invented a machine to automate cigarette production. This increase in production allowed tremendous growth in the tobacco industry until the health revelations of the 20th century.Richard Kluger, Ashes to Ashes: America's Hundred-Year Cigarette War (1996)Allan Brandt, The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall, and Deadly Persistence of the Product That Defined America (2007)
Contemporary
Following the scientific revelations of the early-to-mid-20th century, tobacco was condemned as a health hazard and eventually became recognized as a cause of cancer, as well as other respiratory and circulatory diseases. In the United States, this led to the adoption of the 1998 Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, which settled the many lawsuits by the U.S. states in exchange for a combination of yearly payments to the states and voluntary restrictions on advertising and marketing of tobacco products.
In the 1970s, Brown & Williamson crossbred tobacco to produce Y1, a strain containing an unusually high nicotine content, nearly doubling from 3.2–3.5% to 6.5%. In the 1990s, this prompted the Food and Drug Administration to allege that tobacco companies were intentionally manipulating the nicotine content of cigarettes.
The desire of many addicted smokers to quit has led to the development of tobacco cessation products.
In 2003, in response to growth of tobacco use in developing countries, the World Health Organization successfully rallied 168 countries to sign the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The convention is designed to push for effective legislation and enforcement in all countries to reduce the harmful effects of tobacco. Between 2019 and 2021, concerns about increased COVID-19 health risks due to tobacco consumption facilitated smoking reduction and cessation.
Biology Nicotiana
Many species of tobacco are in the genus of herbs Nicotiana. It is part of the nightshade family (Solanaceae) indigenous to North and South America, Australia, south west Africa, and the South Pacific. Most nightshades contain varying amounts of nicotine, a powerful neurotoxin to insects. However, tobacco contains a much higher concentration of nicotine than the others.
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 unpalatable to many species due to its other attributes. For example, although the cabbage looper is a generalist pest, tobacco's gummosis and trichomes can harm early larvae survival. As a result, some tobacco plants (chiefly N. glauca) have become established as invasive weeds in some places.
Parasites
Tobacco, alongside its related products, can be infested by parasites such as Lasioderma serricorne (the tobacco beetle) and Ephestia elutella (the tobacco moth), which are the most widespread and damaging parasites to the tobacco industry. Infestation can range from the tobacco cultivated in the fields to the tobacco leaves used for manufacturing cigars, cigarillos, cigarettes, etc. Both the larvae of Lasioderma serricorne and caterpillars of Ephestia elutella are considered major pests.
Production Cultivation
Tobacco is cultivated similarly to other agricultural products. Seeds were at first quickly scattered onto the soil. However, young plants came under increasing attack from flea beetles (Epitrix cucumeris or E. pubescens), which caused destruction of half the tobacco crops in the United States in 1876. By 1890, successful experiments were conducted that placed the plant in a frame covered by thin cotton fabric. Modern tobacco seeds are sown in cold frames or hotbeds, as their germination is activated by light. In the United States, tobacco is often fertilized with the mineral apatite, which partially starves the plant of nitrogen, to produce a more desired flavor.
After the plants are about tall, they are transplanted into the fields. Farmers used to have to wait for rainy weather to plant. A hole is created in the tilled earth with a tobacco peg, either a curved wooden tool or deer antler. After making two holes to the right and left, the planter would move forward two feet, select plants from their bag, and repeat. Various mechanical tobacco planters like Bemis, New Idea Setter, and New Holland Transplanter were invented in the late 19th and 20th centuries to automate the process: making the hole, watering it, guiding the plant in—all in one motion.
Tobacco is cultivated annually, and can be harvested in several ways. In the oldest method, still used, the entire plant is harvested at once by cutting off the stalk at the ground with a tobacco knife; it is then speared onto sticks, four to six plants a stick, and hung in a curing barn. In the 19th century, bright tobacco began to be harvested by pulling individual leaves off the stalk as they ripened. The leaves ripen and are pulled off from the ground upwards. Before harvesting, the crop must be topped when the pink flowers develop. Topping always refers to the removal of the tobacco flower before the leaves are systematically harvested. In modern times, large fields are harvested mechanically.
In the U.S., North Carolina and Kentucky are the leaders in tobacco production, followed by Tennessee, Virginia, Georgia, South Carolina and Pennsylvania.
Curing
Curing and subsequent aging allow for the slow oxidation and degradation of carotenoids in tobacco leaf. This produces certain compounds in the tobacco leaves and gives a sweet hay, tea, rose oil, or fruity aromatic flavor that contributes to the "smoothness" of the smoke. Starch is converted to sugar, which glycates protein, which is oxidized into advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs), a caramelization process that also adds flavor. Inhalation of these AGEs in tobacco smoke contributes to atherosclerosis and cancer. Levels of AGEs are dependent on the curing method used.
Tobacco can be cured through several methods, including: Air-cured tobacco is hung in well-ventilated barns and allowed to dry over a period of four to eight weeks. Air-cured tobacco is low in sugar, which gives the tobacco smoke a light, mild flavor, and high in nicotine. Cigar and burley tobaccos are 'dark' air-cured."tobacco curing." The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather guide. Abington: Helicon, 2010. Credo Reference. Web. September 26, 2012. Fire-cured tobacco is hung in large barns where fires of hardwoods are kept on continuous or intermittent low smoulder, and takes between three days and ten weeks, depending on the process and the tobacco. Fire curing produces a tobacco low in sugar and high in nicotine. Pipe tobacco, chewing tobacco, and snuff are fire-cured.