638 TOBACCO 



TOBACCO 



T ABACI FOLIA. Tobacco leaves. The dried leaves of Nico- 

 tiana tabacum. Nat. Ord. Solanacese. (Not official.) 



Tobacco derives its name from tabac, the instrument used 

 by the American aborigines for smoking the leaf, from the 

 island of Tobago, or from the town of Tobasco in New Spain. 

 It appears to have been cultivated from time immemorial 

 in America, and is now grown largely in the region watered 

 by the Orinoco, in the United States, and in many temperate 

 and sub-tropical countries of both hemispheres. It was 

 unknown in the Old World at all events in Europe until 

 after the discoveries of Columbus ; and was first introduced 

 into England by Sir Francis Drake in 1586. 



The Nicotiana tabacum, which yields the Virginian and 

 several commercial tobaccos, is an herbaceous plant, three 

 to six feet in height, with a branching fibrous root, a tall 

 annual stem, funnel-shaped, rose-coloured flowers, and large, 

 moist, clammy, brown leaves, mottled with yellow spots, 

 covered with glandular hairs, and distinguished by a strong, 

 peculiar, narcotic odour, and a nauseous, bitter, acrid taste. 

 The leaves readily communicate their properties to hot 

 water and alcohol. The plant is cut down in August, and 

 the leaves dried, twisted, and carefully packed, with great 

 compression, in hogsheads. For many purposes the midrib 

 is removed, and occasionally the leaf is fermented, in order 

 to remove albuminoids, which, when smoked, give rise to 

 oils and unpleasant products. Sugar and liquorice are some- 

 times added to impart mellowness and pliability. 



Commercial tobaccos contain about 12 per cent, of mois- 

 ture, 20 to 25 of lignin, and about the same amount of 

 inorganic matters, chiefly salts of potassium and calcium. 

 The chief active principle is nicotine (C 10 H 14 N 2 ) a colour- 

 less, volatile, inflammable, oily alkaloid, with an acrid 

 odour and taste. It occurs in combination with malic and 

 citric acids, constituting 5 to 7 per cent, of the dried leaf. 

 It is soluble in water, alcohol, ether, the fixed and volatile 

 oils. Tobacco also yields, when distilled with water, a 

 crystalline volatile oil nicotianin, or tobacco camphor 



