Wild Tobacco

Nicotiana rustica

Wild Tobacco Parts used Uses Habitat and cultivation

Tobacco grows between three and six feet tall, with a thick, upright stem that branches at the top. Leaves are long and pointed. Numerous funnel-shaped flowers, usually pink but sometimes yellow bloom at the top of the plant.

PARTS USED

Leaf.

USES

The Maya recorded inhaling tobacco smoke more than 2,000 years ago. When Christopher Columbus came across the Arawak of the Caribbean in 1492, they were smoking loosely rolled cigars. The Karok of California used tobacco as gifts to spirits and to give to guests of lower status. Among the Karok Indians, only men smoked tobacco; the exception was women doctors, who did the work of men and, therefore, were expected to follow the same traditions. Pocahontas's husband, John Rolfe, was the first European settler to grow a crop of tobacco. When tobacco was first introduced in Spain, it was rolled into what we now call "cigars"-cylindrical objects bulging slightly at the middle. These looked like cicadas, thus the Spanish name cigarro and, later, the French cigarette. Today tobacco is the most widely grown commercial nonfood plant in the world.

Many Native American nations used fresh tobacco leaves as a poultice to kill pain. They also dried the leaves and smoked them as a cure for colds. When tobacco reached Europe, many people there also believed in its medicinal properties. French ambassador to Portugal Jean Nicot, from whose name came the word "nicotine", considered tobacco a cure for headaches and gout. Nicholas Monardes, a Spanish doctor, listed 36 illnesses that tobacco treated. Later, in 1761, John Hill in England proved that snuff causes cancer in the nose. Today tobacco is linked to various forms of cancer.

HABITAT AND CULTIVATION

Tobacco originated in the Americas and is now cultivated worldwide.