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S. Saccubai

CIGARETTES in their current paper-wrapped form were first smoked in the 16th century by the beggars of Seville in Spain who picked up discarded cigar butts, shredded them and rolled them in scraps of paper. However, it was only in the 18th century that they gained respectability. Smoking in India dates back to the Vedic times, and medicinal smoke was inhaled to cure diseases and suppress mental troubles. Smoking for pleasure and as a palliative may have reached Mughal and Rajput India through the Portuguese as an innocent, soothing and pleasant pastime.

Tobacco was cultivated in India after the arrival of the Portuguese in India early 17th century. Initially, it was cultivated in Gujarat, Golconda and a few other places. Today, India is one of the major tobacco producers in the world.

From harvesting to manufacture of products, tobacco produces large quantities of waste materials. From this waste as well as from tobacco seeds a number of by products such as nicotine, nicotinic acid, nicotinamide, pectin, edible oil, cattle and poultry feed, and resins are obtained.

Tobacco leaves contain a complex mixture of over 200 chemical compounds. A large number of these are also identified in tobacco smoke. Tobacco smoke usually contains 1-2 per cent nicotine — an addictive — and a smoker takes in 0.05 to 2 mg per cigarette.

Nicotine is quickly absorbed and reaches the smoker's brain in less than eight seconds of inhalation. Pure nicotine is extremely poisonous, and is more addictive than heroin, cocaine, marijuana, or alcohol. That is why cigarette smokers find it very difficult to quit it.

Every year tobacco kills some three million people. In a year, Rs 1,450 crore is spent in India alone to treat tobacco-related diseases.

Every cigarette shortens a smoker's life by 14 minutes. Just smoking one cigarette leaves a noticeable amount of tar in one's lungs and smoking a packet of cigarette for a full year leaves 1.14 litres of tar in the smoker's lungs. Tar contains 4,000 chemicals, 43 of which are known to be carcinogenic.

Though the tobacco industry gives jobs to many people, and the Government earns several crores of rupees by way of taxes, it has brought misery to mankind. So far, it has caused more than 100 million deaths.

Research was carried out all over the world to find an alternative product from tobacco. As a result, a protein extracted from the tobacco leaves can be used as food as well as medicine.

According to a leading protein chemist, among the protein extracts that were prepared from a variety of green plants and forage crops, those originating from the tobacco plant had "properties which make them uniquely desirable as sources of edible leaf protein".

In 1981 and 1982, the Leaf Protein International (LPI) — based in North Carolina, US — demonstrated that the extraction process for obtaining crystalline F-1-P (first fraction protein) and other raw materials from tobacco was commercially feasible. The field of F-1-P was estimated at 530 lbs/acre (600 kg/hectare).

Grown for food, tobacco plants can be more densely spaced and generate about four times as protein per acre as soybean or corn (maize). At the same time, it requires only half the labour. The F-1-P (a single, large, homogenous protein that makes up half of the plant's soluble protein) can be obtained in pure crystalline form.

Nicotin is present in the protein, but only in a concentration of 20ppb — many times lower than what is normally found in tomatoes, potatoes and green peppers. It has no colour, odour or taste. It is non-allergenic and exhibits an optimal amino-acid composition which lowers cholesterol.

Its functional characteristics, such as solubility, stability, foaming, gelling and emulsifying ability, are superior to those of egg white, casein and soy protein. In feeding experiments, the F-1-P significantly exceeded casein, soy, corn and other cereal proteins in protein efficiency, that is, the weight increment of growing rats per gram of protein ingested.

The F-1-P has also been recommended for a variety of medical uses such as reanimating patients suffering from coma or post-traumatic stress and treating kidney dialysis patients.

The absence of potassium and sodium in F-1-P makes it useful to considerably reduce the frequency of haemodialysis. It is also useful as artificial milk for infants. F-2-P (a mixture of low molecular weight soluble proteins) from tobacco also has favourable characteristics, and can be added to soups and beverages to boost the nutritional quality.

The insoluble protein can be used to enrich solid foods for human consumption and/or used as a feed for poultry and non-ruminants.

With projections based on North Carolina's pilot study, the third world's almost 4.5 million hectares under tobacco could deliver over 2.5 million tonnes of high quality F-1-P, about half as much F-2-P and 20 million tonnes of insoluble protein leaving another 60 million tonnes of deproteinised residue for use as ruminant feed.

Indeed, this may be just the beginning, because tobacco could later replace some food crops with lesser yields of high quality protein.

It is ironic that the same plant which has killed millions should also possess the potential to feed a protein-starved world.

As stated by the World Health Organisation's Farm and Agricultural Organisation (in 1981), "Tobacco may in time become one of the world's principal sources of protein for human consumption and live stock feed".

Tobacco: A life saver

The North Carolina researchers are also working to genetically engineer plants to produce an experimental vaccine against the human papilloma virus (HPV) which can lead to cervical cancer.

A Georgetown University pathologist, Mr C Richard Schlegel, has developed an experimental vaccine for HPV. A sexually transmitted disease, the HPV is the origin of all cervical cancer.

If the HPV infection can be prevented, it will reduce the incidence of cervical cancer.

However, it is too expensive to be used in poor nations, where cervical cancer kills an estimated 2.5 lakh women a year.

An effort is being mounted to engineer tobacco plants for the HPV vaccine. If it works, the cost per dose of the vaccine could drop to just a few rupees.

(The author is former Professor, University of Madras.)

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