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The tobacco plant, first used by the native people of the Americas, [1] later came into use in Europe and in the rest of the world.. Archaeological finds indicate that humans in the Americas began using tobacco as far back as 12,300 years ago, thousands of years earlier than previously documented.
Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus Nicotiana of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the chief commercial crop is N. tabacum .
Price, Jacob M. France and the Chesapeake: A History of the French Tobacco Monopoly, 1674–1791, and of its Relationship to the British and American Tobacco Trades (University of Michigan Press, 1973. 2 vols) online book review; Rainbolt, John C. “The Case of the Poor Planters in Virginia for Inspecting and Burning Tobacco.”
Tobacco cultivation near Jamestown, Virginia Colony, in 1610 was the beginning of the plant's development as a cash crop with a strong demand in England. By the beginning of the 18th century, tobacco became a significant economic force in the American colonies, especially in Virginia's tidewater region surrounding Chesapeake Bay.
Nicotiana (/ ˌ n ɪ k oʊ ʃ i ˈ eɪ n ə, n ɪ ˌ k oʊ-,-k ɒ t i-,-ˈ ɑː n ə,-ˈ æ n ə / [2] [3] [4]) is a genus of herbaceous plants and shrubs in the family Solanaceae, that is indigenous to the Americas, Australia, Southwestern Africa and the South Pacific.
The cabbage looper is also known to have caused damage to tobacco plants in North Carolina, which became a concern as farmers lacked a suitable method for controlling the caterpillars. [3] Shade tobacco is the practice of growing the plants under a screen of cheesecloth fabric. The thin leaves were used for the outer wrappings of cigars. [4]
The concentration of nicotine increases with the age of the plant. Tobacco leaves contain 2 to 8% nicotine combined as malate or citrate. The distribution of the nicotine in the mature plant is widely variable: 64% of the total nicotine exists in the leaves, 18% in the stem, 13% in the root, and 5% in the flowers. [citation needed]
There is a reference to tobacco in a Persian poem dating from before 1536, but because of the lack of any corroborating sources, the authenticity of the source has been questioned. The next reliable eyewitness account of tobacco smoking is by a Spanish envoy in 1617, but by this time the practice was already deeply engrained in Persian society.