Cultivated Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum)
Description
“Pet poisonous” – Toxic parts: leaves Nicotiana tabacum, or cultivated-tobacco, is an-annually-grown-herbaceous-plant. It is found only in-cultivation, where it is the most commonly grown of all plants in the-Nicotiana-genus, and its leaves are commercially grown in many countries to be processed into tobacco. It grows to heights between 1 and 2 meters. Research is ongoing into its ancestry among wild-Nicotiana-species, but it is believed to be a hybrid of-Nicotiana sylvestris,-Nicotiana tomentosiformis, and possibly-Nicotiana otophora. In their first voyage to the New World, Christopher Columbus and his expedition were introduced to a plant whose smoke was called tobacco by the natives of Hispaniola. In 1560, Jean Nicot de Villemain, then French ambassador to Portugal, brought tobacco seeds and leaves as a "wonder drug" to the French court. In 1586 the botanist Jaques Dalechamps gave the plant the name of Herba nicotiana, which was also adopted by Linné. It was considered a decorative plant at first, then a panacea, before it became a common snuff and tobacco plant. Tobacco arrived in Africa at the beginning of the 17th century. The leaf extract was a popular pest control method up to the beginning of the 20th century. In 1851, the Belgian chemist Jean Stas documented the use of tobacco extract as a murder poison. The Belgian count Hippolyte Visart de Bocarmé had poisoned his brother-in-law with tobacco leaf extract in order to acquire some urgently needed money. This was the first exact proof of alkaloids in forensic medicine.
Taxonomic tree
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Domain: Eukarya
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Kingdom: Plantae
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Phylum: Magnoliophyta
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Class: Magnoliopsida
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Order: Solanales
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Family: Solanaceae
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Genus: Nicotiana
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