Where does our nicotine come from?

[bushmaster]

Some juices are from China, some are from the US, but how is the nicotine extracted or manufactured? Is it of a tobacco origin or chemically derived? I ask this not only for my personal knowledge, but because I've been asked by smokers who have indicated an interest in becoming vapers and I was unable to provide them with an answer.

 

[Mister]

The nicotine is extracted from tobacco. Purity of the extraction varies a bit. Totally pure nicotine mixed with PG (i.e. an "unflavored" juice) would be colorless. I've tried unflavored juice from 4 different sources and all appeared to be fairly pure, ranging from colorless to a slight yellowish tinge.

 

[bushmaster]

So if purity of the extraction varies, then our claim that vaping is free of tar, carbon monoxide, etc is somewhat questionable?
Bear in mind, I have become a hardcore vaper--not here to badmouth vaping in any way. Just playing the devils advocate.

 

[PVPuff&Stuff]

Another thought....the largest producer of e-liquid in the world is Dekang. They don't make anything stronger than 24mg. Anything stronger than that is not coming from them.

I believe pharmaceutical grade nicotine is designated "not for human consumption", and for experimental/research purposes only.

 

[Mister]

So if purity of the extraction varies, then our claim that vaping is free of tar, carbon monoxide, etc is somewhat questionable?

A couple of things:

1) Tar and carbon monoxide are produced by the burning of tobacco, they aren't present in juice nor vapor.

2) There are small impurities in almost everything we consume, even when it is USP grade etc. Unless there's reason to think that some chemical which is dangerous even in very small amounts is present we usually don't even think about this.

 

[Kilroy]

So if purity of the extraction varies, then our claim that vaping is free of tar, carbon monoxide, etc is somewhat questionable?
Bear in mind, I have become a hardcore vaper--not here to badmouth vaping in any way. Just playing the devils advocate.

Definitely not. Tar and carbon monoxide are products of combustion. A less purely extracted nicotine might contain some other elements of the tobacco leaf, but would still be free of products of combustion.

 

[Kilroy]

I think we just said the same thing Mister... LOL

 

[jerrydon10]

It is extracted from tobacco, although many plants contain nicotine including tomatoes.

Yes, it can be built in the lab from other chemicals, however, there exists a concept in chemistry called chirality. Look at your hands. Are they pretty much exactly the same structure? Kind of, yet they are exactly backward from each other.

If you place a palm over the back of the other hand, thumbs stick out in different directions. This is chirality: the same structure, yet molecular mirror images of one another.

In fact, lab produced nicotine and nicotine produced in plants are the same molecule, but exactly backward.

Thus the lab produced stuff doesn't work in the body like the plant produced nic.

And that's probably MUCH more than you ever wanted to know on this subject.

 

[Mister]

It is extracted from tobacco, although many plants contain nicotine including tomatoes.

Yes, it can be built in the lab from other chemicals, however, there exists a concept in chemistry called chirality. Look at your hands. Are they pretty much exactly the same structure? Kind of, yet they are exactly backward from each other.

If you place a palm over the back of the other hand, thumbs stick out in different directions. This is chirality: the same structure, yet molecular mirror images of one another.

In fact, lab produced nicotine and nicotine produced in plants are the same molecule, but exactly backward.

Thus the lab produced stuff doesn't work in the body like the plant produced nic.

And that's probably MUCH more than you ever wanted to know on this subject.

A bit off topic, your post got me browsing and I came across this beauty: Olfactory discrimination of nicotine-enantiomers by smokers and non-smokers -- Hummel et al. 17 (1): 13 -- Chemical Senses. It seems that our (smokers) noses can distinguish the two isomers! Pretty amazing.

And BTW, the cheapest ways to synthesize nicotine (still more expensive than just extracting it from tobacco) result in "racemic" nicotine (i.e. a 50-50 mix of the two isomers.) To synthesize just one of the isomers is more expensive again.

 

[jerrydon10]

A bit off topic, your post got me browsing and I came across this beauty: Olfactory discrimination of nicotine-enantiomers by smokers and non-smokers -- Hummel et al. 17 (1): 13 -- Chemical Senses. It seems that our (smokers) noses can distinguish the two isomers! Pretty amazing.

And BTW, the cheapest ways to synthesize nicotine (still more expensive than just extracting it from tobacco) result in "racemic" nicotine (i.e. a 50-50 mix of the two isomers.) To synthesize just one of the isomers is more expensive again.

It's been 35 years since college as you can probably tell by the picture..lol. But there is a law in chemistry that dictates all stereoisomers will become racemic on their own. That's one reason I don't buy abiogenesis.

And yup, it costs some major bucks to keep all that isolated. We won't be seeing any commercially produced nic in the lab anytime soon.

But I also don't buy that e-juice is a tobacco product. I can get it from tomatoes.......Tell that to Judge Leon.........

 

[Israfil]

From happy cows....at least that's what I like to think. ^_^

 

[Viktro D'Vaping]

Hey JerryDon10,
I've been thinking about e-cig bans lately. If they do ban, can we make our own juice? I'm interested in what you said about the tomato due to their being conducive to my climate. I just wanna know how hard it would be, just in case. I don't need the specifics, YET anyway! Thanks!

​

 

[Israfil]

You would need a good way to extract nicotine from them..sadly my chemistry knowledge fails. Honestly if they are banned we will likely be able to find a way around the ban. Something in the small print could allow us a way. (like buying just nic juice and putting it together with flavors ourselves)

 

[MitchellBeans]

Some juices are from China, some are from the US, but how is the nicotine extracted or manufactured? Is it of a tobacco origin or chemically derived? I ask this not only for my personal knowledge, but because I've been asked by smokers who have indicated an interest in becoming vapers and I was unable to provide them with an answer.

Rainbows and butterflies are severely beaten until they release thier precious fluids, which contain nicotine.

We then let the beasts heal, so they can make children happy, until we need more.

Hope that answers your question.

 

[Princessdee]

You forgot the Unicorn horn

 

[Mister]

If they do ban, can we make our own juice? I'm interested in what you said about the tomato due to their being conducive to my climate.

Common tobacco varieties contain 1 to 3 percent nicotine in the leaves, dry weight. Variants with higher concentrations exist. The highest I've heard of is Nicotiana Rustica at a whopping 9%.

Tomatos have vastly less nicotine, miniscule compared with tobacco leaf. Tomato leaves (and those of other plants in the Nightshade family) may contain more substantial amounts of nicotine than the fruit but I haven't found anything to show the numbers. Still it is a good bet that if you want to grow your own, growing tobacco is the way to do it.

The big problem is extracting the nicotine. There are a number of sites which explain how to do it. Those sites range from dead wrong, to sort of right but you wouldn't want to kill an atty with the dirty sludge you'd get, to correct but you'd better be a trained chemist with the right equipment before even thinking about trying it.

Bottom line: Many of us want a reasonable and safe home approach to extracing nicotine but no such approach is known.

 

[cmacpduff]

Jerrydon10;
Yes, I forgot that tomatoes are high in nicotine.
Is it the fruit or the leaves?
Is there a difference between cooked or raw tomatoes?
However, to get back on topic, - if the nicotine in e-liquid is from real tobacco leaves, - isn't that even more of a reason to manufacture our liquid Stateside? Specifically, NC, Ky, and VA?

 

[cmacpduff]

Mister's post just came in and apparantly tomatoes won't be replacing tobacco anytime soon.

 

[jerrydon10]

Mister's post just came in and apparantly tomatoes won't be replacing tobacco anytime soon.

No...LOL...But if the FDA ever approaches me, I get my nic from tomato plants.

I'm just joking, of course. I hope that's coming across.

 

[Tuesday]

Where does the tobacco in analog cigarettes come from?? The ones commonly sold in the USA?