What Is Nicotine?

Nicotine has woven its way through human history for an estimated 2000 years. Its story is deeply intertwined with the tobacco plant, scientifically known as "Nicotiana Tabacum." This plant, belonging to the nightshade family that also includes tomatoes and potatoes, has been utilized by diverse cultures. As both a medicine and a stimulant for almost as long as recorded history.

Whether you're someone who smokes cigarettes, explores vaping, or utilizes nicotine replacement therapies, understanding the inherent nature of this addictive substance is crucial. You might be surprised to uncover the long and intricate relationship humans have had with nicotine.

The consumption of the tobacco plant has been a significant part of human culture for millennia. With indigenous tribes initially using it in medicinal and ritual ceremonies. The tobacco plant itself occurs naturally in the Americas. While the exact route to European shores remains debated, it's widely believed that Christopher Columbus brought tobacco back to Portugal in the late 1400s. Following his initial voyages to the "New World."

Both the plant, Nicotiana tabacum, and the chemical compound nicotine are named after Jean Nicot. A French ambassador to Portugal. In 1550, he sent tobacco seeds to Paris for cultivation. A rudimentary concentrate of nicotine was known to scientists by 1571.

The culture of smoking rapidly spread through Western society. With pipe and cigar smoking becoming prevalent in the 1600s. The tobacco industry flourished by the 1700s, with more and more people taking up the habit. Beyond recreational use, tobacco was even employed as an insecticide by 1763.

In 1828, Dr. Wilhelm Heinrich Posselt and chemist Karl Ludwig Reinmann, two German scientists, first managed to extract nicotine from the tobacco plant in its purest form. Notably, they were also the first to identify nicotine as a poison. Despite this alarming discovery, the invention of the first machine for mass-producing paper cigarettes in 1880 led to an explosion in tobacco consumption.

It wasn't until later in the 19th century that lawmakers began to acknowledge the harmful effects of nicotine. With 26 US states banning tobacco sales to minors by 1890. However, the US Surgeon General only published a definitive study linking smoking with heart disease and lung cancer as recently as 1964. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officially recognized nicotine's addictive properties as late as 1994.

In the modern era, nicotine is accessible to the public in a diverse range of forms. While smoking the tobacco leaf remains the most common method of nicotine consumption, it can also be delivered via Nicotine Replacement Therapies like patches and gum, and of course, through vaping products or e-cigarettes. Our understanding of the harm that nicotine and smoking can cause is greater now than at any point in history. However, the intensely addictive nature of nicotine itself is likely the primary reason smoking continues to be a leading global cause of preventable death.

Beyond human consumption, the only other known application of nicotine is as a pesticide. However, its use in this area has declined significantly since World War Two, and it has even been banned in recent years due to the potential harm it poses to mammals (including humans!) at high concentrations.