Nicotine Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Nicotine - Essay Example Nicotine levels might rise in formulated products up to 34 ÃŽ ¼g/kg (Andersson, Wennstrà ¶m & Gry, 2003, p. 9). In commercial cigarette tobacco, nicotine is present in around 1.5% by weight of the product and it constitutes for 95% of total alkaloid content (Hukkanen, Jacob, & Benowitz, 2005, p. 79). This organic compound is alkaloid in nature and consists of a  pyridine cycle and a pyrrolidine cycle. This bicyclic chemical has an asymmetric carbon and so display enantiomeric behaviour. Nicotine is naturally found in S enantiomeric form in nature which is levorotatory (Hukkanen, Jacob, & Benowitz, 2005, p. 80). Nicotine’s IUPAC nomenclature is 3-(1-methyl-2-pyrrolidinyl) pyridine (Pubchem). Chemical formula is C5H4NC4H7NCH3 and Empirical formula of nicotine is C10H14N2. Its CAS number is 54-11-5 and molecular weight is 162.23156 [g/mol]. Nicotine is a hygroscopic, colourless to pale yellow oily base which have acrid burning bitter taste. Nicotine is also sensitive to air or light and on exposure changes its color to brown. Therefore it should be protected from light and air. It has relatively high vapour pressure and has ability to form salts with almost any acid, and double salts with many metals and acids. It is stored at room temperature not more than 30 °C. The pKa-values of nicotine are: pKa1 6.16, and pKa2 10,96. Nicotine is highly soluble in alcohol, chloroform, ether, kerosene and oils, and is miscible with water below 60 °C. The mixture of nicotine and water occupies less volume than water alone (Andersson, Wennstrà ¶m & Gry, 2003, p. 13). Initial isolation of nicotine from tobacco plant was done by German chemists Posselt & Reimann in 1828, who referred it as a poison (Henningfield & Zeller, 2006, p. 286). Its bicyclic chemical structure is fixed in 1895 by Pinner. Chemical structure of nicotine is shown in Figure 1 (pubchem). Chemical sythesis of nicotine was done in 1904 and structure is confirmed (Andersson,