medicinal uses of tobacco

[Guest guest]

Following is some " thinking out loud " I've recently done about tobacco.

Any comments, or better, recommendations for specific references texts and

articles would be welcome, especially information from the Chinese materia

medica (need to differentiate oral ingestion of tincture or decoction vs.

smoking-inhaling, as effects are quite different - is rough on the GI tract).

I've had difficulty find anything of substance on the Internet, as 99% of the

articles I get on Google, Google Scholar and other search engines are only about

the addictive and evil properties of tobacco.

 

 

Have you ever wondered why tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) was considered a sacred

plant by most American Indian tribes and was used in a wide range of conditions?

Chen and Chen's new TCM materia medica contains almost 700 herbs, it even

includes black and green tea, but does not include tobacco! Certainly not for

lack of use, as Asians smoke just as much as others always have.

 

 

Here are some references I did find online:

 

 

=================REFERENCES:

 

http://david.snu.edu/~dwilliam.fs/f97projects/tobacco/First_Part_C.htm

Medicinal Uses [of Tobacco]

 

http://www.forces.org/evidence/pharma/gold.htm

Tobacco was used medicinally by the indigenous populations in the

Americas long before the arrival of European settlers.

 

from James Dukes database:

http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/duke/ethnobot.pl

 

Nicotiana tabacum (SOLANACEAE)

Ache(Back) Liogier; Ache(Ear) Eb31: 354; Ache(Head) Eb29: 54, Eb31: 18;

Ache(Stomach) Eb29: 54; Ache(Tooth) Eb29: 54, Eb30: 138, Wong; Anodyne Eb25:

437, Eb30: 138, Wong; Anorexiac Eb29: 54; Antidote(Bee sting) Eb29: 55;

Antidote(Centipede) Bliss, Eb29: 55; Antidote(Scorpion) Eb29: 55;

Antidote(Spider) Eb29: 55; Asthma Eb29: 54; Bite(Bug) Eb29: 55, Eb31: 354;

Bite(Snake) Bliss, Eb29: 54, Pittier; Bladder Liogier; Boil Eb25: 251; Bot Eb29:

54; CNS stimulant FontQuer; Cancer Hartwell; Cancer(Nose) Hartwell; Catarrh

Bliss; Cirrhosis Hartwell; Cold Eb29: 54; Cold(Head) Eb30: 138, Wong; Cough

Eb29: 54; Cyanogenetic Al-Rawi; Debility Eb28: 332; Dentifrice Eb29: 54;

Discutient Steinmetz; Diuretic Liogier, Steinmetz; Dysentery Eb29: 54; Emetic

Steinmetz; Epistaxis Eb31: 354; Evil eye Eb29: 55; Expectorant Steinmetz;

Fatality Lewis; Fear Eb28: 332; Flu Eb29: 54; Fumitory Bliss, Broun, Brutus,

Eb21: 260, Eb28: 332, Eb31: 18, Steinmetz, Uphof; Gastritis Woi.Syria;

Hallucinogen Eb22: 311, Eb30: 150; Homicide Eb32: 25; Insecticide Bliss,

Liogier, Steinmetz, Uphof, Woi.Syria; Intestine Woi.Syria; Intoxicant Eb26: 221;

Laxative Steinmetz; Lethargy Eb28: 332; Lumbago Liogier; Lump Eb27: 292; Malaria

Bliss; Masticatory Broun, Steinmetz, Uphof; Menorrhagia Bliss; Narcotic

Duke,1972, Eb29: 54, Liogier, Steinmetz; Paralysis Liogier; Parasiticide*

Al-Rawi, Bliss, Liogier; Pediculicide Eb31: 354, Liogier; Piscicide Bliss;

Poison* Lewis, Bliss, Steinmetz, Woi.Syria; Preventitive Eb28: 332, Eb29: 54;

Preventitive(Malaria) Bliss; Psychedelic Eb24: 77; Puerperium Eb30: 138, Wong;

Purgative Liogier; Religion Eb28: 332; Repellant(Insect) Bliss; Repellant(Snake)

Duke,1972; Rheumatism Eb30: 138, Wong; Scabies Steinmetz; Sclerosis Hartwell;

Sedative Al-Rawi, Eb24: 86, Steinmetz, Woi.Syria; Sialogogue Steinmetz; Skin

Woi.Syria; Snuff Eb26: 221, Eb26: 227; Sore Eb25: 251, Eb27: 292; Spasm

Woi.Syria; Tetanus Liogier; Tumor Hartwell; Ulcer Duke,1972; Vermifuge

Woi.Syria; Wound Eb25: 251, Eb27: 292, Eb29: 55

 

Also see:

http://herb.umd.umich.edu/

enter " Nicotiana " in search string box

 

http://www.ncagr.com/paffairs/articles/2002/1-02agro.htm

NCDA & CS agronomy study helps farmers raise organic tobacco

 

http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/tobacco.html

Organic Tobacco Production

ATTRA - National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service

 

============END of references

 

 

Recently I've become curious about this substance that has become so vilified in

popular opinion, and began to investigate it. Here is what I found so far:

 

 

 

The overwhelming percentage of toxic effects of modern commercial tobacco can be

traced to how it is grown and processed:

 

(1) Calcium apatite (a mineral-rock) fertilizer is used on most commercial

tobacco crops. It naturally contains a certain percentage of polonium, a

radioactive element that is absorbed by the tobacco plants. Organically grown

tobacco (using manure, etc. rather than crushed or processed minerals) has only

1% of the polonium concentration of most commercial tobacco. Some sources

estimate that much of the lung cancer caused commercial tobacco is due to the

polonium.

 

(2) Most commercial tobacco has sugar added during the curing to improve

flavor. Yet this sugar, when burned, creates a smoke that is intensely acid.

Some sources think that the sugar significantly increases the carcinogenicity of

the tobacco. Years ago, rates of cancer were compared between cigar smokers and

cigarette smokers (I forget where the study was done) and rates in cigar smokers

were found to be lower. The article suggested it might be because the tobacco in

cigars usually does not have sugar added. (Could it also be because cigar

smokers don't inhale as much?)

 

(3) And of course, commercial tobacco companies have been exposed as adding

over 16 toxic chemicals to tobacco to increase its addictivity. Many of these

chemicals cause cancer.

 

(4) Modern curing of tobacco utilizes heated flues, which raise the

temperature during the early phase of drying to 170 deg.F. This deactivates

enzymes in the leaf, which under natural air-drying conditions would cause the

20% sugar content of a typical leaf to become fermented, thus reducing the sugar

content of the final product to less than 2%.

 

 

The American Indians most certainly did not:

(1) use calcium apatite fertilizers on their tobacco crops;

(2) add sugar to it;

(3) add toxic chemicals to it (it was sacred - this would have been

considered an abomination, I'm sure)

(4) use heated flues to dry the tobacco

(5) encourage the abuse of tobacco by addiction - it's status as a " sacred "

plant probably inhibited this type of abuse

 

The first 4 factors are responsible for dramatically increasing the toxicity of

the final product. After some preliminary literature searches, I'd estimate that

commercial tobacco is possibly 100-1,000 times more toxic that the tobacco that

the American Indians consumed, and that the two should not even be compared.

Commercial tobacco is largely industrial poisons sweetened up to taste good.

 

 

To add to the intrigue, in recent years I've met two individuals who, unknown to

each other, claimed to have worked on government biochemical warfare projects

where toxic agents were being created that would be potentiated by caffeine and

similar substances (theophylline and theobromine - tea and chocolate). As these

substances are found in almost all soft drinks, tea, coffee, and chocolate, one

could do in most of the population (thus satisfying the demands of orgs like the

Club of Rome for reducing the world's population by 80%), and yet protect

oneself by scrupulously avoiding these. This is based on the principle of binary

chemical weapons - only people who have been exposed to both substance A and

then substance B would become ill. A or B alone would not have much effect. In

this example, substance A = caffeine or other methylxanthine compounds, acting

as the pre-sensitizing agent.

 

Moreover, these two people claimed that nicotine was a useful antidote and

inhibitor for not only many of the chemical warfare agents, but also for many of

the endotoxins created by microbes in the body. They both suggested that perhaps

the politically correct vilification of tobacco was less due to the government's

concern about our health, than a calculated and cynical scheme to trick people

through advertising and social pressure to shift their consumption toward

substances that would make them more vulnerable to bio-chem warfare attack.

 

 

 

I am certainly not suggesting that people rush out and become habitual smokers.

However, in my town a huge percentage of the local population smokes (60%?).

Rather than vilify these people and insist that they stop, when that is unlikely

to happen, why not offer them a MUCH healthier alternative? I know a local man

who has been growing his own tobacco for years:

no chemical or mineral fertilizers

no sugar added during curing

air-dried

He uses unbleached, natural papers to roll them. Now I understand why he does

all this.

 

 

Can any of you recommend books or references on the pharmacology of tobacco??

I'm especially interested in knowing:

specific antimicrobial and antiparasitic activity

pharmacology, especially how it antidotes or inhibits bacterial

endotoxins and other chemical poisons

TCM properties and other info. from materia medica ??

 

 

 

---Roger Wicke, PhD, TCM Clinical Herbalist

contact: www.rmhiherbal.org/contact/

Rocky Mountain Herbal Institute, Hot Springs, Montana USA

Clinical herbology training programs - www.rmhiherbal.org

[Guest guest]

, rw2@r... wrote:

 

> Tobacco- TCM properties and other info. from materia medica ??

 

 

The zhong yao da ci dian lists the following properties for tobacco leaf:

 

Nature & Flavor: acrid, warm; toxic

Actions and Indications: Moves qi and relieves pain, resolves toxin

and kills worms. Treats food stagnation with bloating, pain due to

binding of qi, flat- and welling-abscesses, clove sores, scab and

lichen, and snake and dog bites.

Method of use: Internal use: decoction; crushing to extract the juice;

or smoking. External use: decoct and use as a wash or apply as a

powder.

Contraindications: contraindicated in all throat diseases and lung

diseases with cough and blood ejection.

 

That is the concise summary. The full entry with info on

pharmacology, formulas for specific indications, quotes from other

sources on properties and actions, botany, toxicity, etc. would span

about 4-6 pages in English.

 

Eric Brand