Tobacco

[Green2Herman]

It is my understanding that tobacco is a herb commonly used by shamans in the rainforest.

Havent read that much about it my self. The Visionary art of the... had some information, and I also found some not very informative information on the Internet.

Did however find information showing that tobacco besides nicotine also contains harmalines.

I find this interresting since I my self are a heavy tobacco user, although I use the Swedish snuff which do not cause cancer.

Do anyone else have some interresting information? How much as example do the harmaline amount differ in different sorts of tobacco? Nicotina rustica could maybe have more?

[Avery L. Breath]

I'd check the local public library if I were you.  If they don't have anything, theirs always intra-library loans.  Several books on the nicotinia's floating around out there.

They are found all over the america's.  Some are vastly more poisonous than others.

[boomer2]

This summer I had theopportunity to partiocipate int he planting, harvesting and preparation of the tobacco plant while on Koh Samui.

I learned the compelte form seed to harvest and preparation methods.  I am currently writng a paper on this for the journal of Economic Botany with Dr. Prakitsin Sihanonth of Chulalongkorn university in bangkok and Dr. mark D. Merlin fo the university of Hawaii at manoa.  After The paper is submitted I can post some photo images. I took over 100 images of the process.

As an ex-smoker, I was interested in how the Thai;s go about int heir preparation of this local product known as baiyasoob (cigarettes).

Boomer2

[sachadelic]

It is my understanding that tobacco is a herb commonly used by shamans in the rainforest.

Very true.

Havent read that much about it my self. The Visionary art of the... had some information, and I also found some not very informative information on the Internet.

Shamanistic use of Tobacco:
http://forums.ayahuasca.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=11334

[RifeHeretic]

"Swedish snuff which do not cause cancer."

It was my understanding that nicotine inhibits cell death, thus increasing the risk for cancer.

[visionarybear]

the main problem with any form of smoking is the burning of plant material which creates many carcinogens..

i also agree that there is correlation between nicotine and cancer, lesser but still true, i.e you can get cancer from chewing tobacco.. am not 100% tho

[sachadelic]

The correlation between nicotine and cancer does not mean that nicotine is carcinogenic (and in fact, there has been much lab research on this question, which has failed to turn up any evidence that nicotine is carcinogenic, though there are suggestions that it may help to potentiate other carcinogens).  The correlation is because nicotine co-occurs with carcinogenic substances -- and because nicotine causes addiction, and therefore leads to frequent and regular exposure to those carcinogens.

Nicotine is a deadly nerve poison, but it is not carcinogenic.

Also, in spite of the fact that it is a deadly toxin if swallowed in sufficient quantity, if you don't take enough to kill you, it doesn't actually cause damage to your body.

(At least, other than minor temporary stimulant effects like raising blood pressure, which may be harmful to some, and the general unpleasantness of nicotine poisoning.)

In other words, there is no lasting harm to your body from ingesting sub-lethal amounts of nicotine.

This is the secret of Amazonian Tobacco shamanism, ingesting sub-lethal amounts of this potentially deadly poison.

[blizznshot]

Just to be thorough, the carcinogens in cigarette (or any other smoke/charred food for that matter) are a result of incomplete combustion of hydrocarbons.  This leads to the formation of highly reactive polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAH's, which love to form DNA adducts and often lead to mutation.

As for shamanism, try some rustica.  It'll cleanse the hell out of you!
 :shock:

[VajraPirate]

Heya blizz! Didn't even know you were a member over here!

[blizznshot]

Heya Vpir8!

Yeah, I've been here for a little while but (shhhhhhh) I've been more of a lurker.  Figured what the hell, why not start posting?  A lot of members (including you) are familiar names, and I figure any friends of them are friends of mine.

Anyways, thanks for the welcome and it's great to be here!

[winder]

nicotine metabolites may be rather bad though.

[Stonehenge]

Snuff and chewing tobacco have been shown to increace cancers of the mouth. Nicotine has many harmfull effects on the body including causing blood vessles to become more narrow inhibiting blood flow. Diabetics in particular should not smoke because it increaces greatly the risk of gangrene and amputation. And then there is the fact that tobacco is highly addictive, moreso than heroin. But on the plus side there is... not too much at all.

[blizznshot]

nicotine metabolites may be rather bad though.

True...and (if I'm not mistaken) that's what is suspected to be the chief carcinogen in chew/dip/snuffs.

[blazed123]

I've actually thought about the idea of nicotine itself being a carcinogen before.  I don't believe nicotine is carcinogenic in its own right becuase that would make other nicotine-containing plants such as mucuna pruriens 9said to contain nicotine) and the nicotine patch carcinogens as well.  As far as I know, the patch doesn't come with a cancer warning label.  None of this is evidence, but it coincides with the research that Sachadelic mentions.  

Regarding the toxicity of nicotine my father used to tell me that the amount of pure nicotine that would fit on a pinhead is enough to kill you.

[blazed123]

well I looked it up and the LD 50 for nicotine is approx. 0.9mg/kg, which would mean you need more than a pinhead, but it's still a prety small amount.  Ironically, the same source says pigeons can tolerate 75mg/kg!

http://www.geari.org/faqlethaldose.html