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Tobacco

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Plants

                  iTobacco
   Nicotiana tabacum
   Nicotiana tabacum
         Scientific classification

   Kingdom: Plantae
   Class:   Magnoliopsida
   Order:   Solanales
   Family:  Solanaceae
   Genus:   Nicotiana
            L.

                                   Species

   Nicotiana acuminata
   Nicotiana alata
   Nicotiana attenuata
   Nicotiana benthamiana
   Nicotiana clevelandii
   Nicotiana excelsior
   Nicotiana forgetiana
   Nicotiana glauca
   Nicotiana glutinosa
   Nicotiana langsdorffii
   Nicotiana longiflora
   Nicotiana obtusifolia
   Nicotiana paniculata
   Nicotiana plumbagifolia
   Nicotiana quadrivalvis
   Nicotiana repanda
   Nicotiana rustica
   Nicotianasuaveolens
   Nicotiana sylvestris
   Nicotiana tabacum
   Nicotiana tomentosa
   Ref: ITIS 30562
   as of August 26, 2005

   Tobacco (Nicotiana spp., L.) refers to a genus of short-leafed plants
   of the nightshade family indigenous to North and South America, or to
   the dried and sharp leaves of such plants. Tobacco leaves are often
   smoked (see tobacco smoking) in the form of a cigar or cigarette, or in
   a smoking pipe, or in a water pipe or a hookah. This can damage the
   lungs and can also potentially cause lung disorders such as asthma.
   Tobacco is also chewed, "dipped" (placed between the cheek and gum),
   and sniffed into the nose as finely powdered snuff. Most tobacco
   smokers and other users become habituated and use every day.

   Tobacco contains nicotine, a powerful neurotoxin that is particularly
   harmful to insects. All means of consuming tobacco result in the
   absorption of nicotine in varying amounts into the user's bloodstream,
   and over time the development of tolerance and dependence. Absorption
   quantity, frequency and speed seem to have a direct relationship with
   how strong a dependence and tolerance, if any, might be created. A
   lethal dose of nicotine is contained in as little as one half of a
   cigar or three cigarettes; however, only a small fraction of the
   nicotine contained in these products is actually released into the
   smoke, and most clinically significant cases of nicotine poisoning are
   the result of concentrated forms of the compound used as insecticides.
   Other active alkaloids in tobacco include harmala alkaloids.

   Long term tobacco smoking carries significant risks including the
   potential to develop various cancers as well as strokes, and severe
   cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. Significantly shorter life
   expectancies have been associated with tobacco smoking. Many
   jurisdictions have enacted smoking bans in an effort to minimize
   possible damage to public health caused by tobacco smoking. The
   substantially increased risk of developing cancer as a result of
   tobacco usage seems to be due to the plethora of nitrosamines and other
   carcinogenic compounds found in tobacco and its residue as a result of
   anaerobic heating, either due to smoking or to flue-curing or
   fire-curing. The use of flue-cured or fire-cured smokeless tobacco in
   lieu of smoked tobacco reduces the risk of respiratory cancers but
   still carries significant risk of oral cancer. In contrast, use of
   steam-cured chewing tobacco (snus), avoids the carcinogenicity by not
   generating nitrosamines, but the negative effects of the nicotine on
   the cardiovascular system and pancreas are not ameliorated.
   Tobacco plants
   Enlarge
   Tobacco plants

History

   Native American Tobacco flower and buds
   Enlarge
   Native American Tobacco flower and buds

   Native Americans used tobacco before Europeans arrived in North & South
   America, and early European settlers in North & South America learned
   to smoke and brought the practice back to Europe, where it became
   hugely popular. At extremely high doses, tobacco becomes
   hallucinogenic; accordingly, Native Americans generally did not use the
   drug recreationally. Rather, it was often consumed in extraordinarily
   high quantities and used as an entheogen; generally, this was done only
   by experienced shamans or medicine men. In addition to being smoked,
   uncured tobacco was often eaten, drunk as tobacco juice, or used in
   enemas. Early missionaries often reported on the state caused by
   tobacco, but as it spread into the west, it was no longer used in such
   large quantities or for entheogenic purposes. Religious use of tobacco
   is still common among many indigenous peoples, particularly those of
   South America.

   With the arrival of Europeans, tobacco became one of the primary
   products fueling the colonization of the future American South, long
   before the creation of the United States. The initial colonial
   expansion, fueled by the desire to increase tobacco production, was one
   cause of the first colonial conflicts with Native Americans and became
   a driving factor for the use of African slaves' labor.

   In 1609, John Rolfe arrived at the Jamestown Settlement in Virginia. He
   is credited as the first man to successfully raise tobacco for
   commercial use at Jamestown. The tobacco raised in Virginia at that
   time, Nicotiana rustica, was not to the liking of the Europeans, but
   Rolfe had brought some seed for Nicotiana tabacum with him from
   Bermuda. Shortly after arriving, his first wife died, and he married
   Pocahontas, a daughter of Chief Powhatan. Although most of the settlers
   wouldn't touch the tobacco crop, Rolfe was able to make his fortune
   farming it for export at Varina Farms Plantation. When he left for
   England with Pocahontas, he was wealthy. When Rolfe returned to
   Jamestown following Pocahontas's death in England, he continued to
   improve the quality of tobacco. By 1620, 40,000 pounds of tobacco were
   shipped to England. By the time John Rolfe died in 1622, Jamestown was
   thriving as a producer of tobacco and Jamestown's population would top
   4,000. Tobacco led to the importation of the colony's first black
   slaves as well as women from England in 1619.
   This 1670 painting shows enslaved Africans working in the tobacco sheds
   of a colonial tobacco plantation
   Enlarge
   This 1670 painting shows enslaved Africans working in the tobacco sheds
   of a colonial tobacco plantation

   The importation of tobacco into Europe was not without resistance and
   controversy, even in the 17th century. King James I of England (James
   VI of Scotland) wrote a famous polemic titled A Counterblaste to
   Tobacco in 1604 (published in 1672). In his essay, the king denounced
   tobacco use as "[a] custome lothsome to the eye, hatefull to the Nose,
   harmefull to the braine, dangerous to the Lungs, and in the blacke
   stinking fume thereof, neerest resembling the horrible Stigian smoke of
   the pit that is bottomelesse." In that same year, an English statute
   was enacted that placed a heavy protective tariff on every pound of
   tobacco brought into England.

   Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, tobacco continued to be the
   "cash crop" of the Virginia Colony, along with The Carolinas. Large
   tobacco warehouses filled the areas near the wharfs of new thriving
   towns such as Richmond and Manchester at the fall line ( head of
   navigation) on the James River, and Petersburg on the Appomattox River.

   Until 1883, tobacco excise tax accounted for one third of internal
   revenue collected by the United States government.

   A historian of the American South in the late 1860s reported on typical
   usage in the region where it was grown:

     The chewing of tobacco was well-nigh universal. This habit had been
     widespread among the agricultural population of America both North
     and South before the war. Soldiers had found the quid a solace in
     the field and continued to revolve it in their mouths upon returning
     to their homes. Out of doors where his life was principally led the
     chewer spat upon his lands without offence to other men, and his
     homes and public buildings were supplied with spittoons. Brown and
     yellow parabolas were projected to right and left toward these
     receivers, but very often without the careful aim which made for
     cleanly living. Even the pews of fashionable churches were likely to
     contain these familiar conveniences. The large numbers of Southern
     men, and these were of the better class (officers in the Confederate
     army and planters, worth $20,000 or more, and barred from general
     amnesty) who presented themselves for the pardon of President
     Johnson, while they sat awaiting his pleasure in the ante-room at
     the White House, covered its floor with pools and rivulets of their
     spittle. An observant traveller in the South in 1865 said that in
     his belief seven-tenths of all persons above the age of twelve
     years, both male and female, used tobacco in some form. Women could
     be seen at the doors of their cabins in their bare feet, in their
     dirty one-piece cotton garments, their chairs tipped back, smoking
     pipes made of corn cobs into which were fitted reed stems or goose
     quills. Boys of eight or nine years of age and half-grown girls
     smoked. Women and girls "dipped" in their houses, on their porches,
     in the public parlors of hotels and in the streets.

   As a lucrative crop, tobacco has been the subject of a great deal of
   biological and genetic research. The economic impact of Tobacco Mosaic
   disease was the impetus that led to the isolation of Tobacco mosaic
   virus, the first virus to be identified; the fortunate coincidence that
   it is one of the simplest virii and can self-assemble from purified
   nucleic acid and protein led in turn to the rapid advancement of the
   field of virology. The 1946 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was shared by
   Wendell Meredith Stanley for his 1935 work crystallizing the virus, and
   showing that it still remains active.

Etymology

   The Spanish word "tabaco" is thought to have its origin in Arawakan
   language, particularly, in the Taino language of the Caribbean, said to
   refer to a roll of these leaves (according to Bartolome de Las Casas,
   1552) or to the "tabago", a kind of y-shaped pipe for sniffing tobacco
   smoke (according to Oviedo, the leaves themselves were referred to as
   Cohiba, but Sp. tabaco (also It. tobacco) was commonly used to define
   medicinal herbs from 1410, originating from the Arabic "tabbaq",
   reportedly since the 9th century, as the name of various herbs. The
   word might then be European, and later applied to this plant from the
   Americas.

Cultivation

   Top Ten Tobacco Producers - 2005
   (million metric ton)
   Flag of People's Republic of China  China 2.51
   Flag of Brazil  Brazil                    0.88
   Flag of India  India                      0.60
   Flag of United States  United States      0.29
   Flag of Indonesia  Indonesia              0.14
   Flag of Turkey  Turkey                    0.14
   Flag of Greece  Greece                    0.12
   Flag of Argentina  Argentina              0.12
   Flag of Italy  Italy                      0.11
   Flag of Pakistan  Pakistan                0.08
   World Total                               6.38
   Source:
   UN Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO)

Sowing

   Tobacco seeds are scattered onto the surface of the soil, as their
   germination is activated by light. In colonial Virginia, seedbeds were
   fertilized with wood ash or animal manure (frequently powdered horse
   manure). Seedbeds were then covered with branches to protect the young
   plants from frost damage. These plants were left to grow until around
   April.

   In the nineteenth century, young plants came under increasing attack
   from the flea beetle ( Epitrix cucumeris or Epitrix pubescens), causing
   destruction of half the United States tobacco crop in 1876. In the
   years afterward, many experiments were attempted and discussed to
   control the flea beetle. By 1880 it was discovered that replacing the
   branches with a frame covered by thin fabric would effectively protect
   plants from the beetle. This practice spread until it became ubiquitous
   in the 1890s.

   Today, in the United States, unlike other countries, tobacco is often
   fertilized with the mineral apatite in order to partially starve the
   plant for nitrogen, which changes the taste. This (together with the
   use of licorice and other additives) accounts for the different flavor
   of American cigarettes from those available in other countries. There
   is, however, some suggestion that this may have adverse health effects
   attributable to the polonium content of apatite.

Transplanting

   After the plants have reached a certain height, they are transplanted
   into fields. This was originally done by making a relatively large hole
   in the tilled earth with a tobacco peg, then placing the small plant in
   the hole. Various mechanical tobacco planters were invented throughout
   the late 19th and early 20th century to automate this process, making a
   hole, fertilizing it, and guiding a plant into the hole with one
   motion.

Harvest

   Basma leaves drying in the sun at Pomak village of Xanthi, Greece
   Enlarge
   Basma leaves drying in the sun at Pomak village of Xanthi, Greece

   Tobacco is harvested in one of two ways. In the oldest method, the
   entire plant is harvested at once by cutting off the stalk at the
   ground with a curved knife. In the nineteenth century, bright tobacco
   began to be harvested by pulling individual leaves off the stalk as
   they ripened. The leaves ripen from the ground upwards, so a field of
   tobacco may go through several "pullings" before the tobacco is
   entirely harvested, and the stalks may be turned into the soil.
   "Cropping" or "pulling" are terms for pulling leaves off tobacco.
   Leaves are cropped as they ripen, from the bottom of the stalk up. The
   first crop at the very bottom of the stalks are called "sand lugs", as
   they are often against the ground and are coated with dirt splashed up
   when it rains. Sand lugs weigh the most, and are most difficult to work
   with. Originally workers cropped the tobacco and placed it on
   mule-pulled sleds. Eventually tractors with wagons were used to
   transport leaves to the stringer, an apparatus which uses twine to sew
   leaves onto a stick .

   Some farmers use "tobacco harvesters" - basically a trailer pulled
   behind a tractor. The harvester is a wheeled sled or trailer that has
   seats for the croppers to sit on and seats just in front of these for
   the "stringers" to sit on. The croppers pull the leaves off in
   handfuls, and pass these to the "stringer", who loops twine around the
   handfuls of tobacco and hangs them on a long wooden square pole.
   Traditionally, the croppers, down in the dark and wet, with their faces
   getting slapped by the huge tobacco leaves, were men, and the stringers
   seated on the higher elevated seats were women. The harvester has
   places for 4 teams of workers: 8 people cropping and stringing, plus a
   packer who takes the heavy strung poles of wet green tobacco from the
   stringers and packs them onto the pallet section of the harvester, plus
   a driver, making the total crew of each harvester 10 people.
   Interestingly, the outer seats are suspended from the harvester - slung
   out over to fit into the aisles of tobacco. As these seats are
   suspended it is important to balance the weight of the 2 outside teams
   (similar to a playground see-saw). Having too heavy or light a person
   in an unbalanced combination often results in the harvester tipping
   over especially when turning around at the end of a lane. Water tanks
   are a common feature on the harvester due to heat, and danger of
   dehydration for the workers. Salt tablets sometimes get used as well.

Pests

   Pests of tobacco include the moths Endoclita excrescens, Manduca sexta
   (the Tobacco hornworm), and Manduca quinquemaculata. Other Lepidoptera
   whose larvae use tobacco as a food plant include Angle Shades, Cabbage
   Moth, Mouse Moth, Nutmeg Moth, Setaceous Hebrew Character and Turnip
   Moth. The dry tobacco leaves and cigarettes are sometimes used as food
   for the Cigarette Beetle (Lasioderma serricorne).

Curing

   Myrtleford, Victoria, Australia: historic tobacco kiln
   Enlarge
   Myrtleford, Victoria, Australia: historic tobacco kiln

   Cut plants or pulled leaves are immediately transferred to tobacco
   barns (kiln houses), where they will be cured. Curing methods varies
   with the type of tobacco grown, and tobacco barn design varies
   accordingly. Air-cured tobacco is hung in well-ventilated barns and
   allowed to dry over a period of weeks. Fire-cured tobacco is hung in
   large barns where smoldering fires of hardwoods are kept burning.
   Flue-cured tobacco was originally strung onto tobacco sticks, which
   were hung from tier-poles in curing barns (Aus: kilns, also
   traditionally called Oasts). These barns have flues which run from
   externally-fed fire boxes, heat-curing the tobacco without exposing it
   to smoke. Traditional curing barns in the U.S. are falling into disuse,
   as the trend toward more efficient prefabricated metal "bulk bars",
   allows greater efficiency. Curing and subsequent aging allows for the
   slow oxidation and degradation of carotenoids in tobacco leaf. This
   produces certain compounds in the tobacco leaves very similar and give
   a sweet hay, tea, rose oil, or fruity aromatic flavor that contribute
   to the "smoothness" of the smoke. Starch is converted to sugar which
   glycates protein and is oxidized into advanced glycation endproducts
   (AGEs), a caramelization process that also adds flavor. Inhalation of
   these AGEs in tobacco smoke contributes to atherosclerosis and cancer.

   Unaged or low quality tobacco is often flavoured with these naturally
   occurring compounds. Tobacco flavoring is a significant part of a
   multi-million dollar industry.

   The aging process continues for a period of months and often extends
   into the post-curing process.

Post-cure processing

   After tobacco is cured, it is moved from the curing barn into a storage
   area for processing. If whole plants were cut, the leaves are removed
   from the tobacco stalks in a process called stripping. For both cut and
   pulled tobacco, the leaves are then sorted into different grades. In
   colonial times, the tobacco was then "prized" into hogsheads for
   transportation. In bright tobacco regions, prizing was replaced by
   stacking wrapped "hands" into loose piles to be sold at auction. Today,
   most cured tobacco is baled before sales under contract.

Types

Aromatic Fire-cured

   Aromatic Fire-cured smoking tobacco is a robust variety of tobacco used
   as a condimental for pipe blends. It is cured by smoking over gentle
   fires. In the United States, it is grown in the western part of
   Tennessee, Western Kentucky and in Virginia. Fire-cured tobacco grown
   in Kentucky and Tennessee is used in some chewing tobaccos, moist
   snuff, some cigarettes and as a condiment leaf in pipe tobacco blends.
   It has a rich, slightly floral taste, and adds body and aroma to the
   blend.

   Another fire-cured tobacco is "Latakia" and is produced from oriental
   varieties of N. tabacum. The leaves are cured and smoked over
   smoldering fires of local hardwoods and aromatic shrubs in Cyprus and
   Syria. Latakia has a pronounced flavor and a very distinctive smoky
   aroma, and is used in Balkan and English-style pipe tobacco blends.
   Mowing young tobacco in greenhouse of half million plants Hemingway,
   South Carolina
   Mowing young tobacco in greenhouse of half million plants Hemingway,
   South Carolina

Brightleaf tobacco

   Also commonly known as "Virginia tobacco". Prior to the American Civil
   War, the tobacco grown in the US was almost entirely fire-cured
   dark-leaf. This was planted in fertile lowlands, used a robust variety
   of leaf, and was fire cured or air cured.

   Sometime after the War of 1812, demand for a milder, lighter, more
   aromatic tobacco arose. Ohio and Maryland both innovated quite a bit
   with milder varieties of the tobacco plant. Farmers around the country
   experimented with different curing processes. But the breakthrough
   didn't come until 1854.
   Brightleaf tobacco leaf ready for harvest. When it turns yellow-green
   the sugar content is at its peak, and it will cure to a deep golden
   color with mild taste.The leaves are harvested progressively up the
   stem from the base, as they ripen.
   Enlarge
   Brightleaf tobacco leaf ready for harvest. When it turns yellow-green
   the sugar content is at its peak, and it will cure to a deep golden
   colour with mild taste.The leaves are harvested progressively up the
   stem from the base, as they ripen.

   It had been noticed for centuries that sandy, highland soil produced
   thinner, weaker plants. Captain Abisha Slade, of Caswell County, North
   Carolina had a good deal of infertile, sandy soil, and planted the new
   "gold-leaf" varieties on it. Slade owned a slave, Stephen, who
   accidentally produced the first real bright tobacco. He used charcoal
   to restart a fire used to cure the crop. The surge of heat turned the
   leaves yellow. Using that discovery, Slade developed a system for
   producing bright tobacco, cultivating on poorer soils and using
   charcoal for heat-curing.

   News spread through the area pretty quickly. The worthless sandy soil
   of the Appalachian piedmont was suddenly profitable, and people rapidly
   developed flue-curing techniques, a more efficient way of smoke-free
   curing. By the outbreak of the War, the town of Danville, Virginia
   actually had developed a bright-leaf market for the surrounding area in
   Caswell County, North Carolina and Pittsylvania County, Virginia.

   Danville was also the main railway head for Confederate soldiers going
   to the front. These brought bright tobacco with them from Danville to
   the lines, traded it with each other and Union soldiers, and developed
   quite a taste for it. At the end of the war, the soldiers went home and
   suddenly there was a national market for the local crop. Caswell and
   Pittsylvania counties were the only two counties in the South that
   experienced an increase in total wealth after the war.
   Tobacco blossom: longtitudinal section Hemingway, South Carolina
   Tobacco blossom: longtitudinal section Hemingway, South Carolina

White burley

   In 1864, George Webb of Brown County, Ohio planted Red Burley seeds he
   had purchased, and found that a few of the seedlings had a whitish,
   sickly look. He transplanted them to the fields anyway, where they grew
   into mature plants but retained their light colour. The cured leaves
   had an exceedingly fine texture and were exhibited as a curiosity at
   the market in Cincinnati. The following year he planted ten acres
   (40,000 m²) from seeds from those plants, which brought a premium at
   auction. The air-cured leaf was found to be mild tasting and more
   absorbent than any other variety. White Burley, as it was later called,
   became the main component in chewing tobacco, American blend pipe
   tobacco, and American-style cigarettes. The white part of the name is
   seldom used today, since red burley, a dark air-cured variety of the
   mid-1800s, no longer exists.

Shade tobacco

   It is not well known that the northern US state of Connecticut is also
   one of the important tobacco-growing regions of the country. Long
   before Europeans arrived in the area, Native Americans harvested wild
   tobacco plants that grew along the banks of the Connecticut River.
   Today, the Connecticut River valley north of Hartford, Connecticut is
   known as Tobacco Valley, and the fields and drying sheds are visible to
   travelers on the road to and from Bradley Field, the major Connecticut
   airport. The tobacco grown here is known as shade tobacco, and is used
   as outer wrappers for some of the world's finest cigars.

   Early Connecticut colonists acquired from the Native Americans the
   habit of smoking tobacco in pipes and began cultivating the plant
   commercially, even though the Puritans referred to it as the "evil
   weed". The plant was outlawed in Connecticut in 1650, but in the 1800s
   as cigar smoking began to be popular, tobacco farming became a major
   industry, employing farmers, laborers, local youths, southern African
   Americans, and migrant workers.

   Working conditions varied from pleasant summer work for students, to
   backbreaking exploitation of migrants. Each tobacco plant yields only
   18 leaves useful as cigar wrappers, and each leaf requires a great deal
   of individual manual attention after harvesting, some of which must be
   carried out in the drying sheds, where the temperature exceeds 100
   degrees Fahrenheit.

   In 1921, Connecticut tobacco production peaked, at 31,000 acres (125
   km²) under cultivation. The rise of cigarette smoking and the decline
   of cigar smoking has caused a corresponding decline in the demand for
   shade tobacco, reaching a minimum in 1992 of 2,000 acres (8 km²) under
   cultivation. Since then, however, cigar smoking has become more popular
   again, and in 1997 tobacco farming had risen to 4,000 acres (16 km²).
   The industry has weathered some major catastrophes, including a
   devastating hailstorm in 1929, and an epidemic of brown spot fungus in
   2000.

Perique

   Perhaps the most strongly-flavored of all tobaccos is the Perique, from
   Saint James Parish, Louisiana. When the Acadians made their way into
   this region in 1755, the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes were cultivating
   a variety of tobacco with a distinctive flavor. A farmer called Pierre
   Chenet is credited with first turning this local tobacco into the
   Perique in 1824 through the technique of pressure-fermentation.

   The tobacco plants are manually kept suckerless, and pruned to exactly
   12 leaves, through their early growth. In late June, when the leaves
   are a dark, rich green and the plants are 24-30 inches (600 to 750 mm)
   tall, the whole plant is harvested in the late evening and hung to dry
   in a sideless curing barn. Once the leaves have partially dried, but
   while still supple (usually less than 2 weeks in the barn), any
   remaining dirt is removed and the leaves are moistened with water and
   stemmed by hand. The leaves are then rolled into "torquettes" of
   approximately 1 pound (450 g) and packed into hickory whiskey barrels.
   The tobacco is then kept under pressure using oak blocks and massive
   screw jacks, forcing nearly all the air out of the still-moist leaves.
   Approximately once a month, the pressure is released, and each of the
   torquettes is "worked" by hand to permit a little air back into the
   tobacco. After a year of this treatment, the Perique is ready for
   consumption, although it may be kept fresh under pressure for many
   years. Extended exposure to air degrades the particular character of
   the Perique. The finished tobacco is dark brown, nearly black, very
   moist with a fruity, slightly vinegary aroma.

   Considered the truffle of pipe tobaccos, the Perique is used as a
   component of many blended pipe tobaccos, but is too strong to be smoked
   pure. At one time, the freshly moist Perique was also chewed, but none
   is now sold for this purpose. Less than 16 acres (65,000 m²) of this
   crop remain in cultivation, most by a single farmer called Percy
   Martin, in Grande Pointe, Louisiana. For reasons unknown, the
   particular flavor and character of the Perique can only be acquired on
   a small triangle of Saint James Parish, less than 3 by 10 miles (5 by
   16 km). Although at its peak, Saint James Parish was producing around
   20 tons of the Perique a year, output is now merely a few barrelsful.

   It is traditionally a pipe tobacco, and is still very popular with
   pipe-smokers, typically blended with pure Virginia to lend spice,
   strength, and coolness to the blend. Perique may now also be found in
   the Perique cigarettes of Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co., in an
   approximately 1 part to 5 blend with lighter tobaccos. A similar
   tobacco, based on pressure-fermented Kentucky tobacco is available by
   the name Acadian Green River Perique.

Oriental Tobacco

   Oriental tobacco is a sun-cured, highly aromatic, small-leafed variety
   that is grown in Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, and Macedonia. Oriental
   tobacco is frequently referred to as "Turkish tobacco", as these
   regions were all historically part of the Ottoman Empire. Many of the
   early brands of cigarettes were made mostly or entirely of Oriental
   tobacco; today, its main use is in blends of pipe and especially
   cigarette tobacco (a typical American cigarette is a blend of bright
   Virginia, burley and Oriental).

Tobacco products

Snuff

   Copenhagen snuff tin
   Enlarge
   Copenhagen snuff tin

   Snuff is a generic term for fine-ground smokeless tobacco products.
   Originally the term referred only to dry snuff, a fine tan dust popular
   mainly in the eighteenth century. This is often called "Scotch Snuff",
   a folk-etymology derivation of the scorching process used to dry the
   cured tobacco by the factory.

   European (dry) snuff is intended to be sniffed up the nose. Snuff is
   not "snorted" due to the fact that snuff shouldn't get past the nose
   i.e.; into sinuses, throat or lungs. European snuff comes in several
   varieties: Plain, Toast (fine ground - very dry), "Medicated" (menthol,
   camphor, eucalyptus, etc.), Scented and Schmalzler (a German variety.)
   The major brand names of European snuff are: Bernards (Germany),
   Fribourg & Treyer (UK), Gawith (UK), Gawith Hoggarth (UK), Hedges (UK),
   Lotzbeck (Germany), McChrystal's (UK), Pöschl (Germany) and Wilsons of
   Sharrow (UK).

   Snuff has even been found to be beneficial in some cases of hay fever
   due to the fact that the snuff may prevent allergens from getting to
   the mucus membrane within the nose. American snuff is much stronger,
   and is intended to be dipped. It comes in two varieties -- "sweet" and
   "salty". Until the early 20th century, snuff dipping was popular in the
   United States among rural people, who would often use sweet barkless
   twigs to apply it to their gums. Popular brands are Tube Rose and Navy.

   The second, and more popular in North America, variety of snuff is
   moist snuff, or dipping tobacco. This practice is known as "dipping."
   In the Southern states, taking a "dip" of moist snuff is called
   "putting a rub in," the moist snuff in the mouth is known as a "rub."
   This is occasionally referred to as " snoose" in New England and the
   Midwest and is derived from the Scandinavian word for snuff, " snus".
   Like the word, the origins of moist snuff are Scandinavian, and the
   oldest American brands indicate that by their names. Snuff is also
   called a "ding" in New England (i.e. "Packing a ding"). American Moist
   snuff is made from dark fire-cured tobacco that is ground, sweetened,
   and aged by the factory. Prominent North American brands are
   Copenhagen, Skoal, Timber Wolf, Chisholm, Grizzly, and Kodiak. American
   moist snuff tends to be dipped.

   Some modern smokeless tobacco brands, such as Kodiak, have an
   aggressive nicotine delivery. This is accomplished with a higher dose
   of nicotine than cigarettes, a high pH level (which helps nicotine
   enter the blood stream faster), and a high portion of unprotonated
   (free base) nicotine.

   It has been suggested by The Economist magazine that the ban on smoking
   tobacco indoors in some areas, such as Britain and New York City, may
   lead to a resurgence in the popularity of snuff as an alternative to
   tobacco smoking. Although the large-scale closure of British mines in
   the 1980s deprived the snuff industry of its major market since snuff
   became unfashionable (miners took snuff underground instead of smoking
   to avoid lethal explosions and fires), sales at Britain's largest snuff
   retailer have reportedly been rising at about 5% per year.

Chewing tobacco

   Mail Pouch Barn advertisement: A bit of Americana in southern Ohio.
   Mail Pouch painted the barns for free.
   Mail Pouch Barn advertisement: A bit of Americana in southern Ohio.
   Mail Pouch painted the barns for free.

   Chewing is one of the oldest ways of consuming tobacco leaves. Native
   Americans in both North and South America chewed the leaves of the
   plant, frequently mixed with lime. Modern chewing tobacco is produced
   in three forms: twist, plug, and scrap. A few manufacturers in the
   United Kingdom produce particularly strong twist tobacco meant for use
   in smoking pipes rather than chewing. These twists are not mixed with
   lime although they may be flavored with whisky, rum, cherry or other
   flavours common to pipe tobacco.

   Twist is the oldest form. One to three high-quality leaves are braided
   and twisted into a rope while green, and then are cured in the same
   manner as other tobacco. Originally devised by sailors due to fire
   hazards of smoking at sea; and until recently this was done by farmers
   for their personal consumption in addition to other tobacco intended
   for sale. Modern twist is occasionally lightly sweetened. It is still
   sold commercially, but rarely seen outside of Appalachia. Popular
   brands are Mammoth Cave, Moore's Red Leaf, and Cumberland Gap. Users
   cut a piece off the twist and chew it, expectorating.

   Plug chewing tobacco is made by pressing together cured tobacco leaves
   in a sweet (often molasses-based) syrup. Originally this was done by
   hand, but since the second half of the 19th century leaves were pressed
   between large tin sheets. The resulting sheet of tobacco is cut into
   plugs. Like twist, consumers sometimes cut, but more often bite off a
   piece of the plug to chew. Major brands are Days O Work and Cannonball.

   Scrap, or looseleaf chewing tobacco, was originally the excess of plug
   manufacturing. It is sweetened like plug tobacco, but sold loose in
   bags rather than a plug. Looseleaf is by far the most popular form of
   chewing tobacco. Popular brands are Red Man, Beechnut, Mail Pouch and
   Southern Pride. Looseleaf chewing tobacco can also be dipped.

   During the peak of popularity of chewing tobacco in the Western United
   States in the late 19th century, spittoons were a common device for
   users to spit into.

Snus

   Swedish snus is different in that it is made from steam-cured tobacco,
   rather than fire-cured, and its health effects are markedly different,
   with epidemiological studies showing dramatically lower rates of cancer
   and other tobacco-related health problems than cigarettes, American "
   Chewing Tobacco", Indian Gutka or African varieties. Prominent Swedish
   brands are Swedish Match, Ettan, and Tre Ankare. In the Scandinavian
   countries, moist snuff comes either in loose powder form, to be pressed
   into a small ball or ovoid either by hand or with the use of a special
   tool. It is sometimes packaged in small bags, suitable for placing
   inside the upper lip, called "portion snuff". In the United States, the
   Skoal brand of moist snuff distributes a similar product, packed with
   standard american moist snuff, often flavored with fruits or liquors;
   these small bags are called "Skoal Bandits." These small bags keep the
   loose tobacco from becoming lodged between the user's teeth; they also
   generate less spittle when in contact with mucous membranes inside the
   mouth which extends the usage time of the tobacco product.

   Since it is not smoked, snuff in general generates less of the
   nitrosamines and other carcinogens in the tar that forms from the
   partially anaerobic reactions in the smoldering smoked tobacco. The
   steam curing of snus rather than fire-curing or flue-curing of other
   smokeless tobaccos has been demonstrated to generate even fewer of such
   compounds than other varieties of snuff; 2.8 parts per mil for Ettan
   brand compared to as high as 127.9 parts per mil in American brands,
   according to a study by the State of Massachusetts Health Department.
   It is hypothesized that the widespread use of snus by Swedish men
   (estimated at 30% of Swedish men, possibly because it is much cheaper
   than cigarettes), displacing tobacco smoking and other varieties of
   snuff, is responsible for the incidence of tobacco-related mortality in
   men being significantly lower in Sweden than any other European
   country. In contrast, since women are much less likely to use snus,
   their rate of tobacco-related deaths in Sweden is similar to that in
   other European countries. Snus is clearly less harmful than other
   tobacco products; according to Kenneth Warner, director of the
   University of Michigan Tobacco Research Network,

          "The Swedish government has studied this stuff to death, and to
          date, there is no compelling evidence that it has any adverse
          health consequences. ... Whatever they eventually find out, it
          is dramatically less dangerous than smoking."

   Public health researchers maintain that, nevertheless, even the low
   nitrosamine levels in snus cannot be completely risk free, but snus
   proponents maintain that inasmuch as snus is used as a substitute for
   smoking or a means to quit smoking, the net overall effect is positive,
   similar to the effect of nicotine patches, for instance. Snus is banned
   in the European Union countries outside of Sweden (regular snus, not
   portion, is allowed in Denmark and snus is also becoming a regular
   among Norwegians, as cigarettes are seen by Norwegian popular culture
   as untrendy and much more unhealthy than snus). Although this is
   officially for health reasons, it is widely regarded, in fact, as being
   for economic reasons, since other smokeless tobacco products (mainly
   from India) associated with much greater risk to health are sold too.

   Although it lacks the carcinogenicity of high levels of nitrosamines,
   however, any harmful effects of nicotine will still be seen with snus
   usage. Current research concentrates on nicotine's effect on the
   circulatory system and on the pancreas.

   On June 11, 2006, Reynolds Tobacco announced that it would be test
   marketing Camel brand snus in Portland, Oregon and Austin, Texas by the
   end of the month. The product would be manufactured in Sweden, in
   conjunction with British American Tobacco, manufacturers of BAT snus.
   gawith apricot snuff

Gutka

   Gutka pouches on sale.
   Enlarge
   Gutka pouches on sale.

   Gutka is a tobacco product manufactured and used mainly in India. It
   contains sweeteners, food coloring and paan flavorings . It is used by
   constantly chewing without swallowing the juices and then spitting the
   juices out once the mouth is full of the liquid. This results in the
   walls of most public buildings to be covered in red stains called
   pichkari, especially in areas where males from lower income levels
   congregate.

Creamy snuff

   Creamy snuff is a tobacco paste, consisting of tobacco, clove oil,
   glycerin, spearmint, menthol, and camphor, and sold in a toothpaste
   tube. It is marketed mainly to women in India, and is known by the
   brand names Ipco (made by Asha Industries), Denobac, Tona, Ganesh. It
   is locally known as "mishri" in some parts of Maharashtra. According to
   the U.S NIH-sponsored 2002 Smokeless Tobacco Fact Sheet, it is marketed
   as a dentifrice. The same factsheet also mentions that it is "often
   used to clean teeth. The manufacturer recommends letting the paste
   linger in the mouth before rinsing."

Tobacco water

   Tobacco water is a traditional organic insecticide used in domestic
   gardening. Tobacco dust can be used similarly.

   It is produced by boiling strong tobacco in water, or by steeping the
   tobacco in water for a longer period. When cooled the mixture can be
   applied as a spray, or 'painted' on to the leaves of garden plants,
   where it will prove deadly to insects.

   Basque angulero fishermen kill immature eels (elvers) in an infusion of
   tobacco leaves before parboiling them in salty water for transportation
   to market as angulas, a seasonal delicacy.
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobacco"
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   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
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