Tobacco also a herb? In any case, Nicotiana tabacum is a plant and a nightshade one at that, a family that also includes famously dangerous and famously harmless plants. Famous poisonous ones are the Mandrake, Wolfscress and Henbane and famous tasty ones are Potato, Tomato and Pepper.
Nicotiana tabacum is an annual plant that can grow up to 3 m high. The upper leaves are sessile or short-stalked, the lower leaves are descending. The pink colored corolla is long and funnel-shaped and has triangular petals. A beautiful and fragrant ornamental species is Tabacum sylvestris.
Tobacco, from America to Europe
Historians are divided about who and when tobacco was first brought to Europe: Was the seed already offered to Charles V in 1518? Or was it the Franciscan André Thevet, who brought it in 1558? No, most say, tobacco was first brought to Europe in 1559 through Jean Nicot, an ambassador of Francis II of France in Lisbon. This Jean Nicot had received seed of the tobacco plant from a Dutchman in Florida. Be that as it may, the name Nicot has been permanently recorded in the genus name Nicotiana of the plant, and in the alkaloid most strongly represented in this plant, nicotine.
Tobacco in the old herbal books
Nicotiana tabacum, classified in earlier herbal books under the name Petus, was considered one of the wonders of the new world in the 16th century; it is said to have medicinal properties against almost all ailments, from toothache to bronchitis; from blockages to facial pain; from ulcers to gallstones. And especially not to forget its frequent prescribed use during the plague epidemic in 1665. In short, it was considered an effective remedy for both the elderly and the young. This does not alter the fact that Dodonaeus, for example, knew that this plant was also seriously poisonous. He knew that tobacco is closely related to Henbane and Wolfscress and therefore called him Bilzencruydt of Peru.
Dodonaeus on Tobacco
Petun or Taback makes the person drowsy / crazy / and the brain is disturbed or disturbed / as if he were drunk / if one does not take anything other than its smoke. What work they do proves that this ghewas is beyond measure cold in nature.
To receive the smoke from this substance , the inhabitants of the countries where it grows usually place a dry leaf of the Petun oft Taback in a twisted or folded leaf of the date tree and burn it in that same leaf. one end stabbing / and the other end the smoke and odor of the self with open mouth to catch through the nostrils / and let it climb up to the brain. For the smoke alone, having thus received, is capable of alleviating all sorrows and sorrows of the body.
So it is not surprising that people started smoking tobacco instead of eating it. It may sound strange now, but it was the only safe preparation method for using the Nicotiana tabacum. In the 17th century, tobacco smoking came into vogue, although objections were quickly raised against this. Just listen to Bilderdijk’s poem:
,Euroop,, how foolish you are!
Why this lust for the weeds, for the poison of the East and West coasts? Is it any wonder that you collect disease and poison everywhere ,
that bodily plague after plague weighs down the weakened constitution?,
Tobacco as an insecticide
At the beginning of the 18th century, literature mentions the use of tobacco juice against insects, namely against aphids; but also against the pear tree plague in France. An Italian, with a French name, La Quininye, was summoned to France by Louis XIV to combat this danger in the royal gardens at Versailles. He used tobacco for this. This application of N.tabacum is even reported in an English publication from 1925, stating that the treated trees were still alive at the time.
Over the years, numerous reports have been published about the use of Nicotiana tabacum as an insecticide. Bushbey et al. In 1936, they compiled a summary of approximately 2,500 publications in a voluminous book, in which the successes of tabacum against a wide variety of insects were reported. Insects that have a soft body and are small in size, such as: aphids, whiteflies, thrips, red spider, blood lice, sawflies, small beetles, caterpillars, etc.
Nicotine works as a contact poison, but also as a respiratory poison. The harmfulness of all these compounds to fruit trees and ornamental vegetable cultivation is said to be minor. There is no need to worry about the nicotine that is sprayed over the ,insect target, and ends up in ,wild nature,: the active nicotine appears to be decomposed into less toxic substances under the influence of light and air.
Tobacco was once a prized herb
Nicotiana was once a medicinal herb, stimulant, pesticide and even a ritual religious herb. And although tobacco is still widely used today, the herb is still appreciated by few today. So things can certainly turn around.