Tobacco

TOBACCO. - Solanacea, to which C. Linnaeus gave the name Nicotiana tabacum in honor of J. Nicot of Villemein, who was the first to cultivate the plant in the Portuguese royal gardens. There exist numerous species and varieties (according to some authors up to 60 species), almost all of American origin. The first transport of seeds from Brazil to France dates back to 1556, through the work of the monk André Thevet.

The use of smoking tobacco began in Europe, first in Spain (1570), then in England (1586), being adopted in the early years especially in France to combat toothache. In the time of Louis XIII smoking became a pleasurable habit, but at the beginning it was forbidden to smoke in the street and in public establishments, so much so that special premises (tabagies) existed for smokers. While the use of smoking tobacco was spreading more and more among the less well-off classes, among the aristocracy, by contrast, the use of snuff had already prevailed in the 17th century. Charles I of England was the first to exploit economically the habit of smoking, by instituting the State Monopoly.

Tobacco, having entered Europe as a medicinal plant, has now practically lost every therapeutic use; only in Greece, Spain, Portugal and Romania are its leaves officinal and regularly inscribed in the respective pharmacopoeias. In the botanical field, the insecticidal action of nicotine is exploited, using an infusion of tobacco for the fight against aphids.

In relation to the presence in tobacco leaves of a percentage of nicotine (an alkaloid very toxic to the organism) ranging from 0.6 to 7 or 9%, excessive use of smoking can produce phenomena of poisoning. Today, however, it is held that these are due only in part to nicotine, while there would enter into play, besides predisposing individual factors, the release of other substances during the combustion of tobacco (pyridine bases, ammonia, phenolic and pyrrolic bodies, hydrocyanic acid, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, etc.).

Acute poisoning today is rare, because of the great ease with which the organism becomes habituated to nicotine. It is enough to think, in fact, that this would be lethal at a dose of 5-10 cg., whereas in a cigarette (equal to about one gram of tobacco) there are contained on average a few centigrams of nicotine, and that in inhaling the smoke about 90% of the alkaloid is absorbed. The mechanism of such habituation is not yet clear and appears comparable to that which occurs with regard to arsenic. Acute poisoning, often fatal, was more frequent in the past, when tobacco enemas were used against constipation or leaf poultices for eye diseases.

Chronic poisoning, also called "tabagism," is more frequent and is believed to be caused in large part by a particular individual predisposition. The symptoms are mainly: cardiovascular (palpitations, arrhythmias, anginal syndromes, intermittent claudication), gastric (of a dyspeptic type or even of gastric ectasia and ptosis), visual (scotomas, hemeralopia, amaurosis, disturbances of color sense), nervous (insomnia, migraine, tremors, vertigo, vascular spasms), besides the symptoms of local irritation on the upper airways and on the oral mucosa (by some authors cancer of the tongue, lip and lung are placed in relation with the action of smoking). The tobacco industry too can give rise to skin diseases of an eczematiform type which are considered occupational diseases; abortion is frequent in female tobacco workers.

Tabagism becomes established with notable slowness and its severity does not depend so much on the quantity of tobacco used as, as has already been said, on individual factors not yet known. Many authors agree in saying that the moderate use of tobacco is not to be considered harmful in the healthy adult individual, whereas it can be a cause of serious disturbances if damage to the heart, vessels or nervous system pre-exists. The treatment of tabagism is based exclusively on the suspension of the use of tobacco and, if no definitive organic lesions exist, there slowly occurs the disappearance of all functional symptoms by this means alone. The phenomena of abstinence are absolutely not comparable to those of morphine, but are of a purely psychic nature, easily overcome with a little willpower.

Alessandro Marolla