- #1
givemeaname
- 5
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Hi. I enjoy gardening as a hobby, mainly nicotiana (ornamental tobacco) and medicinal uses of plants. I am not a professional chemist.
Recently I have learned that uncured tobacco contains compounds called cembranoids and that these may have profound medical uses.
http://www.ulm.edu/universityrelations/news/july11/anticancer.html
http://www.iupac.org/publications/pac/pdf/1990/pdf/6207x1353.pdf
What I am curious about is how to isolate these compounds, in as practical way as possible, without extracting nicotine. I have heard that most of the nicotine is contained inside the leaf especially the upper leaves, so the flower calyxes are desired to avoid nicotine and are also the most resinous parts of the plant (and thus contain more terpenoids). Since nicotine is water soluble I imagine that soaking the material in water for a time to remove nicotine and then doing an extraction would work. I don't think that would be enough though and I know full well the dangers of nicotine. Shocked
Also in the resin exudate of tobacco would probably be N-Hydroxyacylnornicotine (a selective toxin to hornworm larvae), which interests me but also would need to be removed. I doubt that it is very toxic or carcinogenic to humans, since nicotine metabolites like nornicotine are much less potent (tobacco field workers get covered in the resins regularly). But I would like to know more information.
N-Hydroxyacylnornicotine: http://www.plantphysiol.org/content/82/2/479.full.pdf
Recently I have learned that uncured tobacco contains compounds called cembranoids and that these may have profound medical uses.
http://www.ulm.edu/universityrelations/news/july11/anticancer.html
http://www.iupac.org/publications/pac/pdf/1990/pdf/6207x1353.pdf
What I am curious about is how to isolate these compounds, in as practical way as possible, without extracting nicotine. I have heard that most of the nicotine is contained inside the leaf especially the upper leaves, so the flower calyxes are desired to avoid nicotine and are also the most resinous parts of the plant (and thus contain more terpenoids). Since nicotine is water soluble I imagine that soaking the material in water for a time to remove nicotine and then doing an extraction would work. I don't think that would be enough though and I know full well the dangers of nicotine. Shocked
Also in the resin exudate of tobacco would probably be N-Hydroxyacylnornicotine (a selective toxin to hornworm larvae), which interests me but also would need to be removed. I doubt that it is very toxic or carcinogenic to humans, since nicotine metabolites like nornicotine are much less potent (tobacco field workers get covered in the resins regularly). But I would like to know more information.
N-Hydroxyacylnornicotine: http://www.plantphysiol.org/content/82/2/479.full.pdf