They DO add ammonia to the tobacco. Its been proven. Without a doubt.
The addition of ammonia to the tobacco allows the nicotine salt to turn it to it's feebase form.
Without the addition of ammonia, very little nicotine would be absorbed by lighting up.
They do add a lot of things to aid in the absorption of the nicotine itself as well.
On top of the chemicals they add, the tobacco plant contains alkaloids (natural chemicals)
Like stefania123 was getting at, these natural alkaloids are known to induce the calming effects.
Nicotine on its own is pretty much a stimulant, just like caffeine is.
But the tobacco leaves do contain alkaloids that have calming effects, that also potentate the nicotine.
When you use a stimulant in high dosages, it brings a calm across the central nervous system.
When you potentate nicotine, it boosts the dosage per hit, and produces the calming effect.
With vaping, we don't have any of that. We just have nicotine. Very slow absorbed nicotine.
We absorb the nicotine much slower than smoking, because with vaping, we absorb it orally.
Very little nicotine is absorbed in the lungs.
The nicotine takes longer to be absorbed, and longer to cross our blood-brain-barrier.
So, with vaping, your going to mainly get stimulative effects no matter what.
There are no potentaters, there are no calming alkaloids, and there is no freebase nicotine.
They put a lot of things in tobacco, but the tobacco itself is also an all around better delivery system.
