TOBACCO

Origin

On October 28 and 1492, Rodrigo of Sherry and Luis de la Torre, two companions of Christopher Colón, were the first western ones that saw the Indians smoking tobacco. Rodrigo of Sherry imitated them immediately, without suspecting that on returning to his land he should be imprisoned by the Holy Inquisition accused of witchcraft since " only the devil could give to a man the power to extract smoke for the mouth ".
Before the arrival of the Spanish, in the whole American continent the aborigens were consuming the tobacco with die both ritual and therapeutic. They were coiling it in the shape of cigar, were wrapping it in leaves of maize like cigarette or were smoking it in pipe. Also they were in the habit of including it in syrups to drink it. The tobacco was a magic plant for the pre-Hispanic peoples of Mexico because " it makes the breath visible ".
The Europeans began to incorporate it into his customs up to the 17th century, immediately after "he" her "treats" that there managed Jean Nicot of the migraines of Catalina de Médicis, wife of the king Enrique II of France. In those days the tobacco was called holy grass or grass for all the males because it was recommended almost indiscriminately for all kinds of suffering.
Etymology
The plant Nicotinia tabacum owes his name to Jean Nicot, the doctor who introduced and popularized his use in Europe.

CHEMISTRY
Identification

The plant of the tobacco has a straight stem and broad leaves. The Nicotine tabacum gives reddish yellow flowers and the rustic Nicotine. The crop is gathered when the leaves begin to acquire a saffron-coloured tone. The leaves dry up up to losing 60 % of his dampness and across a process of fermentation the tobacco ends up by acquiring his typical aroma.
There exist Nicotinia's diverse varieties obtained by hybridization (rustic, virginia, etc.).
To commercial level, the tobacco sells tied in cigarettes or in cigars, though also it is packed rice to be smoked in pipes or in handmade cigarettes by paper.

Composition

The nicotine is the active beginning of the tobacco. It was isolated by Posset and Remagnet in 1828.
According to his variety, the tobacco contains between 0.5 and 16 % of nicotine. The rest is the so called tar, an obscure and resinous substance composed by several chemical agents, many of which are generated as result of the combustion (cyanide of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, oxide of nitrogen, ammonia, etc.)

Forms of adulteration
The industry of the tobacco is submitted to regulations of quality and this product is relatively cheap, is not in the habit of becoming corrupted.

PHARMACOLOGY
Mechanism of action and forms of employment
The tobacco can be chewed, inhaled directly by the nose (pulverized in the shape of snuff) or smoked in pipes, cigars or cigarettes. Inhaling the smoke, this is " giving him the blow ", it is possible to absorb up to 90 % of the nicotine, whereas if this one remains only in the mouth, the number diminishes to 20 or 35 %. Approximately 8 seconds after having entered to the lungs, the nicotine contained in the tobacco reaches the blood torrent and at the longest in 5 minutes it has managed to penetrate the barrier hematoencefálica to come to the brain. His effects last between 5 and 10 minutes provoking phases of stimulant action and action depresora of the nervous central system. In the first instance it stimulates some sensitive recipients and produces an unload of adrenaline that accelerates the cardiac frequency and the arterial pressure raises; later it depresses all the autonomous ganglions of the nervous peripheral system.
According to the last investigations of the Brookhaven national Laboratory of New York, the effect of the nicotine in the brain consists of the reduction of the enzima MAO-B, person in charge of regulating the transmission of the dopamine, neurotransmitter that it controls between other mental alterations, the motivation and the pleasure. Therefore, to MAO-B's minor quantity (up to 40 % less in the brain of an addict), major increase of dopamine; increase that, on having intervened in the thalamus, turns into the key to be sorry to gain one irrepressible of returning to smoke another cigarette.
Therapeutic uses
Nicolás Monardes, in his description of The plants of the New World (1574), was recommending the tobacco as infallible priest for 36 different diseases. Nowadays, it is recommended inside the medicine herbolaria against the mange, rheumatic pains and certain nervous affections. The medical herbalist's Arias Carbajal recommend to boil 90 grams of leaves of tobacco in half a liter of water to destroy the mange, the louses, etc. Also it prescribes the fresh leaves applied on the forehead and the temples to recover, or at least to abate, the neuralgias.
Dosing
The average content of tar of a cigar changes from 0.5 to 35 mg, and that of nicotine from 0.5 to 2 mg. The lethal dose of nicotine calculates in 60 mg for an adult of 70 kg. A cigar can contain even 90 mg, though since already we mention, the ingestion of nicotine in the cases in which one does not give the blow diminishes to less than the half.
Psychological and physiological effects
To mental level, the nicotine facilitates the concentration, activates the memory and, to a certain extent, it controls the increase of weight on having increased the expense of energy, having diminished the senses of the smell and the taste, and to support the busy smoker forthwith of smoking instead of eating. Every person in addition has his particular considerations with regard to the things that the tobacco " does for her ". Some of them believe that it inspires them, others believe that he accompanies them, etc. As it counts the filmmaker Luis Buñuel in his memories, for example, for him was:

Impossible to drink without smoking. I started smoking at the age of sixteen and still I have not left it. Certainly, rarely I have smoked more than twenty cigarettes a day. What have I smoked? Of everything. Black Spanish tobacco. Approximately twenty years ago I got used to the French cigarettes: the "Gitanes" and especially, the "Celtiques" are those that more I like.
The tobacco, which he marries admirably with the alcohol (if the alcohol is the queen, the tobacco is the king), is a nice companion with whom to confront all the events of a life. He is the friend of the good ones and of the bad moments.

A cigarette is ignited to celebrate a happiness and to drown a sorrow. Being alone or accompanied. The tobacco is a pleasure of all the senses: of the sight (it is nice to see under the paper of silver the white cigarettes, aligned like for magazine), of the smell, of the tact... If they were bandaging the eyes to me and were putting between the lips a flushed cigarette, I would refuse to smoke. I like to be sorry the package in the pocket, to open it, to feel the consistency of the cigarette, to notice the fret of the paper in the lips, to please the flavor of the tobacco in the language, to see to sprout the flame, to bring it closer, to fill with heat. A man called Dorronsoro, Spanish engineer of Basque origin and republican exiled in Mexico whom it knew from the University, died of a cancer of the so called ones " of smoker ". I went to see him to the hospital in Mexico. It had pipes throughout and was taking a mask of oxygen that he was taking from himself occasionally, to give a sip to a cigarette, furtively. He smoked until the last hours of his life, public inspector to the pleasure that was killing him. Therefore, respectable readers, to finish these considerations on the alcohol and the tobacco, parents of firm friendship and of fecund dreams, I will permit to give them a double advice: neither drink nor smoke, it is bad for the health. I will add that the alcohol and the tobacco accompany very pleasingly the act of love. In general, the alcohol comes before, and the tobacco later. (3)
To physical level, the nicotine increases the cardiac frequency, the respiratory pace, the arterial pressure and the coronary flow. During the combustion of the tobacco, some of his elements transform in carbon monoxide, poisonous emission that he contributes to the emergence of cardiac diseases. When the carbon monoxide enters to the blood torrent, it tends to replace the oxygen contained in the red cells of the blood forming carboxihemoglobina. In the smokers, up to 10 % of the total hemoglobin it can be carboxihemoglobina, which is equivalent to say that his fabrics receive 10 % less of oxygen.
In the long term the smoking has diverse effects on the system broncopulmonar, cardiovascular and digestive. The gastric sores and duodenales are doubly more common between the smokers. The wounds of the skin can be late more in recovering due to the fact that the nicotine reduces the levels of vitamin C in the organism. In addition, the smoke of the cigarette produces inflammation in the mucous one of the respiratory device and increase of the production of one enzyme called elastasa, that degrades the elastina, constitutive material of the lung to the one that owes his aptitude to expand to himself and to contract. The habit of smoking provokes that the pulmonary fabric loses his elastic properties, seemingly in an irreversible way, with the consistent decrease in the pulmonary aptitude to deposit oxygen to the blood.

The tar can cause bronchial disorders and contains substances that are considered to be carcinogenic, is for it that to the tobacco they attribute to him 90 % of the cases of pulmonary cancer in the world and also it relates to the appearance of cancer in the mouth and in the throat

Medical reports calculate that in whole it causes 30 % of all the deaths produced by the cancer, 30 % of the cardiovascular diseases, 75 % of the chronic bronchitises and 80 % of the cases of emphysema; though of fact, the New Medicine has verified since the cancer takes as an origin an emotional conflict that arises for surprise and there is lived in isolation, which would explain why not all the smokers suffer invariably from cancer, in spite of the fact that they have a good favorable environment in order that he appears.
Also one assures that the smoking women can see his fertility limited, to suffer menstrual disorders and, in case of using contraceptive tablets, they are 39 times more inclined to suffer hearts attacks that those who do not smoke.
Though there are not waited genetic disturbances of the use of the tobacco, this one can increase the risk of premature childbirths and of low weight in the newborn children.
Potential of tolerance and dependence
The chronic consumption of nicotine accompanies of a slight tolerance. Until it exceeds his habitual dose, the smoker does not experience the effects of nausea and motion sicknesses that there are in the habit of bringing the persons who are not accustomed to the tobacco.
The nicotine provokes a physical severe enough dependence. The syndrome of abstinence appears in the first 24 hours later to the suppression and demonstrates for: irritability, worry, headaches, decrease of the cardiac frequency, increase of the appetite, decrease of the wake or insomnia and difficulties of concentration. In case of the nicotine, the psychological dependence plays also a preponderant paper, for what the syndrome of abstinence can last several days or several weeks. The administration of nicotine in chewing gums or in patches can relieve partially this syndrome.

WHAT TO DO IN CASE OF EMERGENCY?
The poisonings for nicotine are very rare, almost they are never given for chewing or to smoke tobacco but for the accidental ingestion of nicotine in pure form or for the direct contact across the skin. The manifestations of poisoning include nauseas, diarrhea, tachycardia, drastic increase of the arterial pressure and salivation. With big doses they present convulsions, respiratory slowness, cardiac irregularity and comma, by what it must be considered to be a medical urgency.


INTERESTING FACTS
Legal current regime
The tobacco is the psychoactive legal one. All the adult persons can buy tobacco freely, though the areas to smoke it are restricted increasingly. The manufacturers only are forced to inform his clients about the risks for the health.

The sacred functions of the former rites of the tobacco
The fire was recognized by the former inhabitants of America as a transmutador and liberating of the power of certain substances. They were thinking that it was doing the things more active than passive and was liberating the essence of the substances. Because of it it is that they were burning and smoking a great variety of substances. They had different good for smoking mixtures depending on the needs of the ritual and on the station. A lot of used varieties have become extinct or his properties have been forgotten.

The tobacco was used by his properties to stop the thought, to focus and to centre on one itself, which was a previous preparation to be able to listen to the spirits you guide, to the spirits of the naturalez and to the beings who live in other dimensions or planes of conscience. The tobacco was serving as preparation, but it was not opening the aptitudes to listen to these guides. For ésto other ingredients were added.

The tobacco only was constituting between 5 or maximum 10 % of the mixture to smoke. The former inhabitants believed that the native plants of the different regions were created by the spirits of the nature to satisfy the specific needs of the persons and native animals of every area, because of it it is that the different tribes were using different plants, depending on which were that cracían in the locality and on the intention of the ceremony. The shamans were those who knew which to use in every occasion.
The sage, of which there are at least 20 different varieties, was considered to be specially useful in the rituals of the women. Other common ingredients were lavender, sunflower, barks of different trees and plants dry and pulverized with psychoactive properties.
Each of them was gathered by reverence by the shamans who knew which were his power, when they could be recolectardas and how to dry them to the Sun in order that it was absorbing his energetic properties. In the rituals of preparation, the tobacco and all these plants were altered, purified and raised of vibration by the help of lasplegarias and invocations to the spirits. In addition, the stones with which traditionally the pipes were manufactured were in yes the same transformadoras of the energy of the tobacco and other plants. This was a part of the ritual and part of what was making them effective, since actúaban chemically like liberating of the psychoactive substances of certain plants. All that is recorded in Black Elk's book: The Sacred Pipe, the tuxedo rites of the Siux.
Another important part of the sacralidad of smoking was that was realized in group, inside a ceremony, to reduce the bows between some and others. This was done to mix and to integrate the energies on having inhaled the same smoke. At the conclusion of a tribal war, to spend the pipe of the peace was a way of establishing the union, of leaving the differences to go.

The vaccine antitobacco
It is calculated that in the world there exist 1,100 million persons addicted to the tobacco. The nicotine is considered to be the most addictive second drug that exists, only overcome by the star player (derivative of the cocaine). The fight against the habit of smoking is one of the principal challenges for the organisms that are employed at the defense of the public health. At the same time as the campaigns antitobacco and the measures increasingly strict that the governments adopt to stop the hurt to the so called passive smokers (those who inhale the smoke of the tabacos that others smoke), the scientists seem to have found a new treatment: a vaccine called Nicvax, which one finds in experimental phase and which has as principal effect prevent the arrival of the nicotine to the centers of the brain where this substance produces pleasant sensations.
In the Foundation for Minneapolis's Medical Investigation, they have experienced this vaccine with mice:
The collaborators of the doctor Paul Pentel take charge that the rodents turn into eager addicts. Every day they they administer a quantity of nicotine equivalent to the one that 10 cigarettes contain. After a week, the mice show clear symptoms of addiction. Then they divide in two groups: To it receives Nicvax's dose, which one does not administer to the group B. Later it returns to inject the nicotine, and little by little they are diminishing the doses. In the group To, the progressive disappearance of the drug does not provoke the symptoms typical of a syndrome of abstinence, because the nicotine does not activate the cerebral mechanisms that generate the sensation of pleasure. In the group B the edginess spreads, the mice become hyperactive and demand the substance that one has withdrawn from them. The last phase of the process of test consists of analyzing the brains of the mice of both groups. In the brain of the mice that received a dose of the vaccine one finds 65 % less of nicotine that in of those that were not inoculated by Nivax. (16)
The vaccine achieves these effects in the mice due to the fact that the particles of nicotine that come to the blood across the lungs are very small and have an enormous mobility, them allows it to infiltrate into any corner of the human body evading the system inmunitario. The doctors Naso, Enifar and Fattom who have patented already the vaccine, obtained that the system inmunitario was creating agents who were reacting to the nicotine, antibodies that were capturing his particles and were giving to them a size that was preventing his access to brain. The doctor Naso explains: " In the laboratory let's believe a compound by means of the combination of a not toxic protein with several particles of nicotine. When this new compound comes to the blood, the system inmunitario detects it as foreign body and creates antibodies to neutralize it. Later, before the arrival of simple particles of nicotine, the defenses react and capture them ". (16)
The particles of nicotine joined the antibodies reach a size that prevents his infiltration in the brain. As result, the arrival of the nicotine to the blood does not generate in the consumer of tobacco the awaited pleasure. It is a question of an active vaccine because the own organism produces the antibodies across the system inmunitario.
This one foreseen that at the beginning of the year 2002 the Agency of Medicines and Food of The United States authorizes his test in human beings, and of being aprovada, turns into the business of the century. Though probably also in the controversy of the century since the vaccine also has preventive character and a young man might be applied for example that hereby, on having smoked a cigarette in a holiday, would not turn into an addict.

The effects of the tobacco in the energetic human field and the system of chakras
Donna Cunningham had several years working as specializing therapist addictions when it entered in touch with Andrew Ramer, a healer and canalizador with whom he collaborated to write two books: The spiritual dimensions of healing addictions (11) and Further dimensions of healing addictions

In the first book they support that in general, the human beings we fall in the addiction when we lose of sight or do not want to realize our "vision", or: " our skill of perceiving and taking part in the most wide reality, retaining a recollection, though it is weak, of our Top Being and of the tasks and intentions of our life " (11).
In the second book they explain with clarity how there were in use former the different psychoactive ones, which they are called " tools of power ", to recover and to support our vision; and since it is that, on having lost this knowledge, nowadays we abuse the same tools and to destroy ourselves with them instead of using them in our benefit.

In Further dimensions of healing addictions, between other many interesting things, explain to us which are the effects that have the principal addictive substances on the energetic human field, concretly on the system of chakras.
In case of the tobacco, Danna and Andrew start by commenting on that:
When the native Americans introduced the tobacco to the European immigrants, deliberately they left out the sage and other crucial ingrdientes to alter the conscience. On one hand, they did it due to the spiritual beginning of not announcing altering substances of the conscience to the not awake ones spiritually. The native Americans saw rapidly that, though the Europeans had overcome the poverty and they were technically adult, they were suffering from an onlooker and rather tragic spiritual delay. The Europeans did not have visions, could not communicate with the spirits of his ancestors, and were not feeling the divinity of four elements. Not only they were lacking these perceptive skills, which occasionally some native Americans were lacking, but in addition they were ridiculing arrogant to whom they could perceive such things. Clearly the Europeans were not ready for the rituals in those who were smoking these plants [...]
An additional reason of why the native Americans gave the tobacco to the Europeans without other plants was a species of biochemical strategy of war, expecting to debilitate for these powerful enemies erasing parts of his consciences, in order that they could not open the door for other dimensions in order conseguír clarity to solve problems. Many have indicated how the Europeans indujeron to the native Americans to becoming addicted to the alcohol, but few ones have noticed the subtlest but more powerful form in which the native Americans did addicts to his captors. The addiction and the esclavitid are twin events in the history, and difficultly one is without other one. The exchange of vices between oppressors and oppresseds is a constant. (19)
In relation with his effects on the subtle bodies, Danna and Andrew they assure that it produces effects in several chakras simultaneously connecting them between yes in different moments and of an uncontrolled form:
The nature of the smoke is to move freely, constructing bridges between different points in the structure of the reality. In the body, the tobacco creates bridges between different chakras, bridges that change and move to different times. The chakra root is involved. Note since you can ignite a cigar at any time and in any place, and to feel like in house with you itself for a moment.
The solar plexus also is involved. Think about all these rooms of conference full of smoke, with the people using the energy of his solar plexus for the process of work. Obviously the chakra of the throat is involved, since the throat is the entry to the body of this substance, this way it is that there is an attempt of being opened for the communication. The third eye is a part of I jump, since the intuitive flashes emerge from the cloud of smoke of the insconsciente. Those that inhale the smoke of the second hand, as the children of the strong smokers, also experience these changes of conscience routine, growing without the clear notion of which these changes are not the way usal of working.
The tobacco allows that the energies of all the chakras should be interconnected. That of the root with that of the space between the eyebrows, that of the throat with that of the root, the solar plexus with the root, constant turnándose and changing. [...] We all have a racial memory of what was meaning to smoke in the antiquity, without ambargo, for much that we smoke now the alone tobacco, the awaited result will continue being absent. The frustration of not reaching the change of condition of conscience wished, poisons the system. (19)
Besides this racial memory that it stimulates us to smoke expecting to obtain what former was offering us the tobacco mixed with other psychoactive plants inside the ritual suitable context, according to the authors there is another reason that leads us to the abuse of the tobacco:
The addicts to the cigar do not know how to dream; with this we want to say that the faculty to achieve that his dreams work for yes same has been lost, forgotten or damaged. [...] We fight with our problems of day after day across the work that we realize in the dreams. Anyone who smokes is having problems in the world of the dream. Initially, to smoke increases the diurnal perccepciones what can stimulate the catalogue of images in the world of the dreams. But if we continue smoking, such as the tobacco dismuye the sense of the taste, also it diminishes all the senses. One continues smoking more and more, but what it is necessary to do is to work with our dreams.