Posted on 09/06/2012 8:41:37 AM PDT by Red Badger
Nicotine is bad for you and apparently it has the same poisonous effect on pests, getting scientists' attention for a potential alternative to traditional commercial pesticides.
Tobacco and nicotine make one of the-hardest-to-get-rid-of vices of modern society – smoking, which can lead to lung cancer and early death.
For hundreds of years now, tobacco leaves have been used on a small scale, as a natural organic pesticide, and as the growing concerns about health risk related to tobacco sales are harming tobacco farmers in some parts of the world, scientists looked for a new way of using this plant.
Dr Cedric Briens, Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Western Ontario, and Director of the Research and Development, of the Institute for Chemicals and Fuels from Alternative Resources (ICFAR), and colleagues, thought of using tobacco as a natural pesticide, due to its toxic content of nicotine.
They explained that tobacco leaves could be turned into pesticides by a process called pyrolysis, which involves heating up the tobacco leaves at 900 degrees Fahrenheit (482.2 degrees Celsius) in a vacuum.
From pyrolysis results an unrefined substance called bio-oil, which the scientists tested as a pesticide against a wide range of insect pests, including 11 different fungi, 4 bacteria, and the Colorado potato beetle (a major agricultural pest that is very resistant to insecticides).
This oil killed all of the beetles and stopped the growth of two types of bacteria and one type of fungus, and even after the nicotine was removed, the oil kept its pesticide properties.
Because tobacco bio-oil proved to be so effective, and also because it destroyed some but not all of the microorganisms, the team concluded that it could be very valuable as a selective pesticide, far better than those currently used.
It's no wonder that for centuries, gardeners have been using home-made mixtures of tobacco and water as a natural pesticide to kill insect pests.
Of this research could start a 'green' pesticide industry, tobacco farmers would regain an additional income and the world would have a new eco-friendly pest-control agent.
The report was published in ACS' bi-weekly journal Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research.
Exactly. It is hardly a discovery to determine that nicotine is an effective herbicide.
That characteristic is part of the cause of “smoker’s cough” — over the years of smoking, the nicotine kills the ciliated epithelium in the lungs, and the smoker’s lung cannot naturally expel junk and dirt — so they cough and hack it out.
I remember grandma making tobacco water for just this purpose. Added to a flit sprayer, she used it on some crops in the garden.
Considering how the gov likes to fly over and spray pesticides on humanity, tobacco as a pesticide is a 100% sure way of killing the tomato crop.
It may also be a cheap way of getting a nicotine fix.
Breathe, breathe in the air, don’t be afraid to care....
and then the gov will wonder why more people may become addicted to smoking.
Jerry Baker has talked about this for years. As I recall he mixes with liquid soap to make it stick.
“Organic” growers use nicotine-based pesticides; because they are less effective than modern pesticides they have to spray more often and in greater quantities. A lot of “organic” foods actually contain *more* pesticide residue than conventionally-grown crops.
Dumb and Dumber Democrat #1: "Groovy, dude! So when the cockroach goes in, he dies. The roaches check in but they don't check out, man."Dumb and Dumber Democrat #2: "Dude! The heat doesn't kill them. It's the lung cancer."
Dumb and Dumber Democrat #1: "Oh, groovy, man! That's way betterer than DDT! No chemicals."
Together: "DOWn with DOW! DOWn with DOW!"... "Hey, man, don't bogart the joint."
Is Jerry Baker still around? My grandmother was buying his books 40 years ago. She grew the most beautiful roses.
The majority of phytochemicals that plants produce are toxic or distasteful to insects and other animals. Insects adapt pretty rapidly themselves. Other animals avoid the nasty plants when pickings are good and eat them when times are lean.
Don’t ever smoke in bed.....it’s hazardous to your health...........
Since I was a little kid I have known that tobacco juice is a better home remedy than costly Neosporin or anything else and ALWAYS keep a pouch of Mailpouch tobacco for things like poison ivy, mosquito stings, bee stings, athlete’s foot, or even, G-d forbid, ringworm or impetigo.
Soak some in water and put the wet tobacco right on whatever ails you and it works like magic. Old Indian folk remedy.
I think the tobacco subsidies have ended. It happened sometime in the last two or three years.
My grandfather, and his friends, back in the 60’s, dipped snuff (Tube Rose, Garretts, etc), chewed plug tobacco (Red Bull) occasionally had cigars and pipes.
But CIGARETTES were VERBOTEN DEVIL’S TOOLS!!!......
My grandfather made a foot soak with fresh tobacco leaves and hot water. Greenhouse managers use tobacco ‘candles’ to kill insect pests. ... And I smoked for decades and gave them up about eight years ago ... but I would pick them right back up if they figure out how to stop the components of tobacco from causing disease.
I can't disagree with that but it would apply to just about any substance. I was certainly talking about distilling a very concentrated dosage of nicotine. The first rule of toxicity is dosage. The is arsenic in both broccoli and rat poison. One is healthy for you the other will kill you if you eat it.
Therapeutic usesThe primary therapeutic use of nicotine is in treating nicotine dependence in order to eliminate smoking with the damage it does to health. Controlled levels of nicotine are given to patients through gums, dermal patches, lozenges, electronic/substitute cigarettes or nasal sprays in an effort to wean them off their dependence.
However, in a few situations, smoking has been observed to apparently be of therapeutic value. These are often referred to as "Smoker’s Paradoxes".[79] Although in most cases the actual mechanism is understood only poorly or not at all, it is generally believed that the principal beneficial action is due to the nicotine administered, and that administration of nicotine without smoking may be as beneficial as smoking, without the higher risk to health due to tar and other ingredients found in tobacco.
For instance, recent studies suggest that smokers require less frequent repeated revascularization after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).[79] Risk of ulcerative colitis has been frequently shown to be reduced by smokers on a dose-dependent basis; the effect is eliminated if the individual stops smoking.[80][81] Smoking also appears to interfere with development of Kaposi's sarcoma in patients with HIV.[82]
Nicotine reduces the chance of breast cancer among women carrying the very high risk BRCA gene,[83] preeclampsia,[84] and atopic disorders such as allergic asthma.[85] A plausible mechanism of action in these cases may be nicotine acting as an anti-inflammatory agent, and interfering with the inflammation-related disease process, as nicotine has vasoconstrictive effects.[86]
Tobacco smoke has been shown to contain compounds capable of inhibiting monoamine oxidase, which is responsible for the degradation of dopamine in the human brain. When dopamine is broken down by MAO-B, neurotoxic by-products are formed, possibly contributing to Parkinson's and Alzheimers disease.[87] Many such papers regarding Alzheimer's disease[88] and Parkinson's Disease[89] have been published. While tobacco smoking is associated with an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease,[90] there is evidence that nicotine itself has the potential to prevent and treat Alzheimer's disease.[91] Nicotine has been shown to delay the onset of Parkinson's disease in studies involving monkeys and humans.[92][93][94] A study has shown a protective effect of nicotine itself on neurons due to nicotine activation of α7-nAChR and the PI3K/Akt pathway which inhibits apoptosis-inducing factor release and mitochondrial translocation, cytochrome c release and caspase 3 activation.[95]
Recent studies have indicated that nicotine can be used to help adults suffering from autosomal dominant nocturnal frontal lobe epilepsy. The same areas that cause seizures in that form of epilepsy are responsible for processing nicotine in the brain.[96]
Studies suggest a correlation between smoking and schizophrenia, with estimates near 75% for the proportion of schizophrenic patients who smoke. Although the nature of this association remains unclear, it was recently argued that the increased level of smoking in schizophrenia may be due to a desire to self-medicate with nicotine.[97][98] More recent research has found that mildly dependent users got some benefit from nicotine, but not those who were highly dependent.[99] There are very few research done on this subject, including the research by Duke University Medical Centre which found that nicotine may improve the symptoms of depression in people.[100] Nicotine appears to improve ADHD symptoms. Some studies are focusing on benefits of nicotine therapy in adults with ADHD.[101]
While acute/initial nicotine intake causes activation of nicotine receptors, chronic low doses of nicotine use leads to desensitisation of nicotine receptors (due to the development of tolerance) and results in an antidepressant effect, with research showing low dose nicotine patches being an effective treatment of major depressive disorder in non-smokers.[102]
Nicotine (in the form of chewing gum or a transdermal patch) is being explored as an experimental treatment for OCD. Small studies show some success, even in otherwise treatment-refractory cases.[103][104][105]
The relationship between smoking and inflammatory bowel disease is now firmly established but remains a source of confusion among both patients and doctors. It is negatively associated with ulcerative colitis but positively associated with Crohn's disease. In addition, it has opposite influences on the clinical course of the two conditions with benefit in ulcerative colitis but a detrimental effect in Crohn's disease.[106][107]
You could always use an e-cigarette to get the nicotine without the other 60+ alkaloids and carbon monoxide.
Ever so often you’ll see his videos as gifts on PBS. I taped him years ago to look over. Often his books are in 2nd hand/thrift stores.
Hope cows, pigs and chickens don't get wind of this evolving thing.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.