The Tobacco Reference Guide by David Moyer

by David Moyer, MD.

Chapter 4 History of tobacco in chronological order

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History of tobacco in chronological order: 1600

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The traditional tobaccos of the New World, those which were spread around the world

in the 16th and 17th centuries, are not the predominate tobaccos used in commerce

today. Two special varieties of N. tabacum, flue-cured (also called bright or Virginia

tobacco) tobacco and Burley tobacco, were developed in the United States in the

19th century. These varieties now dominate the tobacco market. Cigar smoke is

harsh compared to cigarette smoke, and this harshness is related to the pH of the

smoke. At an alkaline pH, nicotine exists in smoke predominately as the free base

and is relatively abundant in the vapor phase of the smoke. Since nicotine is irritating

to the mouth and throat, cigar smoke is experienced as harsh and as difficult to inhale.

Nicotine is still readily absorbed from cigars, however, because the free base readily

traverses the oral mucosa. In the mid-19th century, a new method for curing tobacco

was developed in North Carolina. This new method, flue curing, involved exposing the

harvested leaf to high temperatures. The process resulted in a tobacco leaf that

burned with an acid pH because of its relatively high sugar content. In an acidic

environment, nicotine is predominately in the form of salts and is dissolved in droplets

of a smoke aerosol. This results in a milder smoke, one that is easier to inhale. In the

lung, nicotine is rapidly absorbed across the vast respiratory epithelium so that a low

smoke pH does not limit absorption. The use of flue-cured tobacco made the

inhalation of tobacco smoke easier. Inhalation, in turn, provided a greater boost of

nicotine to the brain compared to oral absorption as well as more widespread

exposure of the body to the poisons in tobacco smoke.

Quote from The Tobacco Epidemic, pp. 4-5 (John Slade)

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"When temperately used, there is not in all the world a medicine comparable to

tobacco. All of tobacco is wholesome."

William Barclay: Nepenthes; or, The Virtues of Tobacco, 1614

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