European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

WORLD NO TOBACCO DAY: A CHALLENGE TO THE WORLD TO MAKE IT FREE FROM SMOKING

*Dibyendu Dutta, Jaydeep Roy, Soumya Chakraborty, Soumya Maiti, Dr. Dhrubo Jyoti Sen and Dr. Dhananjoy Saha

ABSTRACT

Tobacco is a plant grown for its leaves, which are smoked, chewed, or sniffed. Tobacco contains a chemical called nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive substance. Millions of people in the United States have been able to quit smoking. Tobacco leaves and the smoke generated when they are burned contain over 4 thousand chemicals, 3 the best known of which is nicotine, first isolated from tobacco leaves in 1828 by Derek Posselt and Reimann. It is the nicotine that causes smokers to become addicted to tobacco, and the chemical itself is lethal in small doses. The amount of nicotine in a cigarette varies considerably from brand to brand, but a typical cigarette contains 11.9–14.5 mg of nicotine. Smokers do not absorb all the nicotine content of the cigarette. On average, a person only absorbs 1–1.5 mg of nicotine from a single stick. Tobacco is a plant grown for its leaves, which are smoked, chewed, or sniffed. It causes you to crave a smoke and suffer withdrawal symptoms if you ignore the craving. Nicotine is a toxic substance. It raises your blood pressure and spikes your adrenaline, which increases your heart rate and the likelihood of having a heart attack.

Keywords: Smoking, Nicotine, Tobacco, Nicotinic receptor, Craving, Dopamine, Acetylcholine, NMJ [neuromuscular junction].