Extracting nicotine from tobacco

[toekuttr]

TB: What if you put ground-up tea in a pot, covered it with water and cooked out the tea flavor, then strained your stuff through a coffee filter? You'd have the mess we have after cooking tobacco. So an answer, maybe, might be to put tobacco in reusable tea bags (widely sold) and use those just as we would to brew tea. Cover with water and simmer out the goodness!

I intend to try this next batch.

Also found out how rose water is made. This could be done to create tobacco water. Just substitute tobacco for rose and see what we get.

Great idea TB, and I was thinking along these lines as well. I then read that nicotines boiling point is around 470 F! I started reading about it a while ago when looking at a bottle of Perique liquor, and wondered how they got the nicotine out. It turns out no nicotine makes it through the distillation process at all. Good news is that the Perique liquor is non-habit forming (other than the liquor part).

Sounds like a good way to get the tobacco juice out relatively mess free though, with the tea bags.

[MacFan]

Great idea TB, and I was thinking along these lines as well. I then read that nicotines boiling point is around 470 F! I started reading about it a while ago when looking at a bottle of Perique liquor, and wondered how they got the nicotine out. It turns out no nicotine makes it through the distillation process at all. Good news is that the Perique liquor is non-habit forming (other than the liquor part).

Sounds like a good way to get the tobacco juice out relatively mess free though, with the tea bags.

Hi toekuttr,
There are actually several ways to distill certain kinds of tobacco in which the nicotine not only survives but in some instances can increase

[toekuttr]

Hi toekuttr,
There are actually several ways to distill certain kinds of tobacco in which the nicotine not only survives but in some instances can increase

Cool MacFan, care to share? I wouldnt so much be worried about the nicotine surviving at all though, just getting into the distillate and not staying in the "mash". I know even solids can be distilled, but in a home environment is the question. Any particular reason why only some types can be distilled, other than the need for a high nic baccy to begin with?

[MacFan]

Cool MacFan, care to share? I wouldnt so much be worried about the nicotine surviving at all though, just getting into the distillate and not staying in the "mash". I know even solids can be distilled, but in a home environment is the question. Any particular reason why only some types can be distilled, other than the need for a high nic baccy to begin with?

Well, the cool thing is that you don't necessarily need hi-nic to get the kick...depending on how you distill, you can manipulate the nic levels fairy accurately. Anyway, not trying to be evasive (well, I guess actually I am) but I use two of the methods for my e-liquids, so...

[TropicalBob]

If I don't post tomorrow, I accidentally killed myself.

I used distillation this afternoon and the little pot of distilled fluid is clear, not the dark brown/black cooked tobacco stuff I began with. Is it virtually no nicotine, or possibly a dangerous level of concentrated nicotine? I'm going to start very easy with using it, maybe a drop in a vial of Bickford/glycerine.

[bishybob]

This is probably going to sound crappy... I'm against any animal testing whatsoever.
But you could put a drop on an ant and see what happens.
Put him in a jar afterwards and see if he dies.

There's also test strips out there that give you a positive/negative for nicotine content.

[TropicalBob]

You know, that's good info -- and I was considering catching a spider (plentiful in Florida this time of year) and putting a drop on him.

But the whole experiment went down the drain. I was distilling away and wasn't checking the result frequently enough. The tobacco liquid turned to pure tar (oh my!) as water evaporated and the distillate hardened to a clear gum. That's not going near an atomizer!

No more distillation.

I want to try brewing with tea bags next. And then I'm done with the whole thing and will buy from Macfan!

[toekuttr]

TB: Is it virtually no nicotine, or possibly a dangerous level of concentrated nicotine? I'm going to start very easy with using it, maybe a drop in a vial of Bickford/glycerine.

I admire your courage TB, but I think you'll be OK. I'm willing to bet you have a cup of distilled water there. Of course, I'm not the one smoking it either Seriously, I don't think you can actually distill nicotine using water or PG, they'll evaporate well before the nics even close to it. But just in case, good luck!

[TropicalBob]

I think you're right. If it were easy to get nicotine, the whole world would know how to do it. Instead, distillation needs to be done with chemicals in a lab setup. Not for me.

BUT .. the gummy stuff I did distill smells great! Just like pipe tobacco. It kept the aroma and probably the taste. But ... it's gum and I can't smoke that.

[toekuttr]

TB: BUT .. the gummy stuff I did distill smells great! Just like pipe tobacco. It kept the aroma and probably the taste. But ... it's gum and I can't smoke that.

I bet thats where all the nicotine is too. I agree with the lab scenario, it looks like using toluene and phenylmethane are best left to the chemists, as far as I'm concerned anyways.