Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  "| 
March,  1884.  j 
Sugar  in  Tobacco. 
147 
THE  OCCURRENCE  OF  SUGAR  IN  TOBACCO. 
By  Professor  Attfieed,  F.R.S. 
About  a  year  ago  the  following  questions  were  put  to  me,  "  Does 
tobacco  contain  sugar  or  any  similar  saccharoid  matter?  if  so,  how 
much  ?  "  The  subject  not  previously  having  come  before  me  I  could 
not  definitely  reply.  Indeed,  a  search  through  the  literature  of  tobacco 
showed  that  the  questions  could  not  satisfactorily  be  answered  at  all  in 
the  existing  state  of  our  knowledge.  I  therefore  proceeded  to  obtain 
evidence  on  the  matter  by  direct  chemical  investigation.  Samples  of 
cut  and  uncut  tobacco  were  obtained  and  tested  for  sugar  by  the  copper 
test,  the  fermentation  method,  and  the  polariscope.  The  copper  test 
not  yielding  concordant  results  was  discarded  :  it  is  a  good  test  under 
most  circumstances,  but  for  the  quantitative  estimation  of  sugar  in 
tobacco  infusions,  or  probably  in  similar  vegetable  infusions  and  decoc- 
tions, it  appears  to  be  untrustworthy.  The  examination  of  tobacco 
infusion  by  the  polariscope  will  be  referred  to  subsequently. 
All  the  samples  readily  yielded  alcohol  when  properly  fermented 
with  yeast ;  hence  all,  presumably,  contained  sugar,  the  amount  vary- 
ing from  4  to  9  per  cent.  But  as  they  were  obtained  from  ordinary 
trade  sources,  and  as  tobacco  has  been  known  to  have  molasses,  honey, 
and  other  varieties  of  sugar  mixed  with  it,  the  samples  obviously  might 
contain  sugar,  and  yet  sugar  not  be  a  natural  constituent  of  tobacco. 
I  therefore  proceeded  to  examine  specimens  obtained  from  museums 
and  one  which  had  been  raised  in  my  own  garden  during  the  previous 
summer.  The  latter  contained  only  traces  of  sugar  ;  but  it  had  been 
grown  in  the  open,  at  anything  but  a  tropical  temperature,  and  was 
not,  I  think,  ordinary  Virginian  tobacco,  but  rather  the  Maryland 
variety.  I  may  even  state,  here,  that  a  sample  grown  in  my  garden 
last  summer,  under  better  conditions  of  sunlight,  with  more  care,  and 
from  which  the  flowering  tops  were  frequently  nipped  off  to  promote 
development  in  the  leaves,  furnished  less  than  two  per  cent,  of  sac- 
charoid matter.  Of  the  other  samples  some  did  and  some  did  not 
afford  evidence  of  the  presence  of  sugar.  A  specimen  of  old  dark 
colored  Indian  leaf  gave  no  sugar,  a  light  colored  Indian  leaf  yielded 
1*54  per  cent.,  calculated  as  cane  sugar.  A  bundle  of  leaves  marked 
"  Original  sample  as  drawn  from  dock  at  Liverpool,"  furnished  10*84 
per  cent.    These  results  being  unsatisfactory,  for  my  purpose,  I  at 
