Why nicotine?

[readeuler]

Does anyone have any knowledge or references about how nicotine got singled out as the magical most important chemical in cigarette smoke? The Wikipedia entry in nicotine sheds little light on its history.

It just seems crazy to me; if there are what, 4mg of nicotine in a cig that weighs a gram, nicotine makes up a paltry .4% of the composition by weight. This is envelope math with numbers I'm guessing at, but I don't think I'm seriously off there.

According to a study by the New Zealand Institute of Health (I probably botched the name), nicotine was one of the more prevalent chemicals in the smoke. But there was more nitric oxide and 4x as much ammonia than nicotine.

It's just something I was curious about lately with this FDA business. I mean, I'd much rather there be nic in my e-liquid than ammonia, but... I just don't know how nicotine got singled out. Now Google searches just return a bunch of results about e-cigs, which hasn't been super helpful for my question.

I do recall that dried tobacco leaves have a considerable proportion of nicotine by weight, 3% or more, which is far more significant than .4%. Could this be the what got everyone interested a couple hundred years ago?

 

[GinnyTx]

why nicotine? because it makes your brain go 'yes !! more!'

yes that's why, just like Tea and Coffee got Europe "hooked" and basically became a commodity.


in non layman's terms, you get that epinephrine and increased dopamine (one of your brain's feel good substances)
you can get it from other foods too just in lower amounts than tobacco, cocoa, tomatoes, potato, eggplant and bell peppers.

 

[oplholik]

I'm going to take a wild a** guess here. I'm thinking that nicotine is jumped on because the ANTZ can point to it as poisonous, dangerous, and addictive. It probably grabs more attention than the other dangerous chems. in a cig.

 

[Robino1]

In part, nicotine was equal to smoking. In other words, the words smoking and nicotine meant the same thing. When they said nicotine was studied, they really were saying smoking was studied.

The actual nicotine portion had not been singled out. It has been only recently been studied, within the last few years, and has been thought to help people with ADD, ADHD, Alzheimer's, intestinal problems.

If you are looking at studies with dates earlier than the last five to ten years, they are actually talking about smoking,...not so much just the nic part.

 

[readeuler]

Interesting replies, thanks all. It sounds like a happy coincidence of sorts, with a few good reasons mixed in.

 

[Gitum]

This is funny because when I originally told my girlfriend I quit smoking, her first question was "do those vapor cigarettes still have nicotine?" I replied yes, her reply was "then how is it any different?"..

It's kind of sad how little most people actually understand about what in tobacco products is bad for them. They actually think nicotine is the killing culprit. Spreading the word about how nicotine is not the killer is another step for the vaping community to show the people of the public. Otherwise, vaping may just always be taboo'd like cigarettes

 

[Bigflyrodder]

I get that response from some of my family too Gitum, they don't understand that while vaping still delivers nicotine it does not deliver the some odd 4,000 other chemicals found in cigs. Sigh...

Best way to position it is that vaping is a "reduced harm alternative".

 

[Mike36609]

Nicotine is NOT a carcinogen, it is a stimulant along the lines of caffeine. Nicotine is the addictive substance/ingredient/element in tobacco, whether it is smoked, chewed or dipped.

 

[LAwaters]

There are studies indicating that nicotine is not addictive, or at least not in a classic physiological dependency way. There's some info at this link, and others can be found in scientific publications.

Is Nicotine Addictive ?

The section that seems most significant from that link:
- There have been trials of nicotine on never-smokers, for other medical purposes such as the various therapies that nicotine is recognised as useful for (cognitive dysfunction, some auto-immune conditions, for example). We now know of six such trials.

- None of these trials (which in some cases involved administration of large quantities of pure nicotine to subjects for many months) resulted in any dependence or withdrawal symptoms. It is therefore possible to conclude that, anecdotally, nicotine by itself has no potential for dependence. (These results must be considered as providing anecdotal evidence, since dependence issues were not the main focus of these trials.)

 

[skoony]

nicotine by itself has never been studied as to its addictive qualities. it has only been studied in conjunction with tobacco. current science seems to indicate that the act of combusting nicotine in its tobacco form enhances any addictive qualities it may have. it is very similar to caffeine as far as its toxicity and,believed to be about as addictive. if nicotine was as addictive as some claim virtually every adult in the USA would be smoking 2 packs a day and,guzzling coffee from dawn to dusk. the so called heavy smoker or,coffee drinker represent 10 % or less of the users of these products.most people have tried either or both at least once. when it comes to the ANTZ its just a semantic change. since they can't prove harm to the users of e-cigs not to mention non-users they are changing there mantra from smoking and secondhand smoke to nicotine addiction and nicotine delivery devices. this is no small thing. they know what they are doing. just remember habit that causes harm is an addiction. habit that causes no harm is just a habit. they know this. thats why nicotine is the new"insert bad drug name here".

regards
mike