Extraction and Determination of Nicotine in Tobacco from Selected Local Cigarettes Brands in Iraq

Abstract

Tobacco smoke contains more than 3,800 different compounds, where all could harm the exposed humans to different degrees. Among them, nicotine (3-(1-methyl-2-pyrrolidinyl) pyridine) is considered the most toxic compound. In many countries, tobacco smoking is considered a severe health hazard and a significant factor in death and several common diseases. Because of that, knowing the toxicity of nicotine is important to help understand tobacco-induced human diseases and identify the potential risks associated with the therapeutic use of nicotine as an aid in smoking cessation. Thereby, estimating the nicotine amount is very crucial in tobacco production. As this work aims to extract and determine nicotine, which is the highest toxic component in tobacco plant leaves, several methods were carried out to extract the nicotine. All extracting methods were based on water extraction as a polar solvent and the other non-polar solvents. Water shows a limited extraction activity for nicotine from tobacco leaves. Since nicotine is a dibasic compound, an alkaline solution (40% NaOH) was used to extract nicotine from tobacco leaves for the selected samples. Further, solvent extraction by non-polar solvents was conducted to extract nicotine from the alkaline solution and prepare it for the spectrometric analysis. FT-IR and UV analysis show that the oily substance, which was extracted from tobacco leaves, is nicotine. Results were confirmed by microscopic examination for the extracted nicotine after the addition of mercuric chloride, where flowery shape crystals of nicotine liganded with mercuric chloride complex were formed.