Editing Tobacco (section)

==Biology==
{{More citations needed section|date=June 2017}}

===''Nicotiana''===
{{Main|Nicotiana}}
{{See also|List of tobacco diseases}}
[[File:Nicotine.svg|thumb|[[Nicotine]] is the compound responsible for the addictive nature of tobacco use.]]
[[File:Native American tobacco flower.jpg|thumb|upright|Tobacco (''[[Nicotiana rustica]]'') flower, leaves, and buds]]
Many species of tobacco are in the genus of herbs ''Nicotiana''. It is part of the nightshade [[family (biology)|family]] ([[Solanaceae]]) indigenous to North and South America, Australia, south west Africa, and the [[Oceania|South Pacific]].<ref name="Lewis">{{cite journal|last1=Lewis|first1=Albert|title=Tobacco in New Guinea|journal=The American Anthropologist|date=1931|volume=33|issue=1|pages=134–139|doi=10.1525/aa.1931.33.1.02a00290|doi-access=free}}</ref>

Most nightshades contain varying amounts of [[nicotine]], a powerful [[neurotoxin]] to [[insect]]s. However, tobaccos tend to contain a much higher concentration of nicotine than the others. Unlike many other Solanaceae species, they do not contain [[tropane alkaloid]]s, which are often poisonous to humans and other animals.

Despite containing enough nicotine and other compounds such as [[germacrene]] and [[anabasine]] and other [[piperidine]] alkaloids (varying between species) to deter most [[herbivore]]s,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Panter |first1=KE |last2=Keeler |first2=RF |last3=Bunch |first3=TD |last4=Callan |first4=RJ |year=1990 |title=Congenital skeletal malformations and cleft palate induced in goats by ingestion of Lupinus, Conium and Nicotiana species  |journal=Toxicon |pages=1377–1385 |volume=28 |issue=12 |pmid=2089736|doi=10.1016/0041-0101(90)90154-Y |bibcode=1990Txcn...28.1377P }}</ref> a number of such animals have [[evolution|evolve]]d the ability to feed on ''Nicotiana'' species without being harmed. Nonetheless, tobacco is unpalatable to many species due to its other attributes. For example, although the [[cabbage looper]] is a generalist pest, tobacco's gummosis and trichomes can harm early larvae survival.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Elsey |first1=K. D. |last2=Rabb |first2=R. L. |title=Biology of the Cabbage Looper on Tobacco In North Carolina1 |journal=Journal of Economic Entomology |date=1 December 1967 |volume=60 |issue=6 |pages=1636–1639 |doi=10.1093/jee/60.6.1636 }}</ref> As a result, some tobacco plants (chiefly ''N. glauca'') have become established as [[invasive weed]]s in some places.

===Types===
{{Main|Types of tobacco}}
The types of tobacco include:
* [[Types of tobacco#Aromatic Fire-cured|Aromatic fire-cured]] is cured by smoke from open fires. In the United States, it is grown in northern middle [[Tennessee]], central [[Kentucky]], and [[Virginia]]. Fire-cured tobacco grown in Kentucky and Tennessee is used in some chewing tobaccos, moist snuff, some cigarettes, and as a condiment in pipe tobacco blends. Another fire-cured tobacco is [[Latakia (tobacco)|Latakia]], which is produced from oriental varieties of ''N. tabacum''. The leaves are cured and smoked over smoldering fires of local hardwoods and aromatic shrubs in [[Cyprus]] and [[Syria]].
* [[Types of tobacco#Brightleaf tobacco (Virginia tobacco)|Brightleaf tobacco]] is commonly known as "Virginia tobacco", often regardless of the state where it is planted. Prior to the [[American Civil War]], most tobacco grown in the US was fire-cured dark-leaf. Sometime after the [[War of 1812]], demand for a milder, lighter, more aromatic tobacco arose. [[Ohio]], [[Pennsylvania]] and [[Maryland]] all innovated with milder varieties of the tobacco plant. Farmers discovered that brightleaf tobacco needs thin, starved [[soil]], and those who could not grow other crops found that they could grow tobacco. Confederate soldiers traded it with each other and Union soldiers, and developed quite a taste for it. At the end of the war, the soldiers went home and a national market had developed for the local crop.
* [[Types of tobacco#Broadleaf|Broadleaf]], a dark tobacco varietal family popular for producing enormous, resilient, and thick wrapper leaves.{{cn|date=July 2024}}
* [[Burley (tobacco)|Burley tobacco]] is an air-cured tobacco used predominantly in [[cigarette]] production, but also in pipe tobacco as a balance to Virginias and other leaves high in sugar content. In the U.S., burley tobacco plants are started from pelletized seeds placed in polystyrene trays floated on a bed of fertilized water in March or April.
* [[Cavendish tobacco|Cavendish]] is more a process of curing and a method of cutting tobacco than a type, but is used to thicken flavors from other tobaccos that might lack a body. The processing and the cut are used to bring out the natural sweet taste in the tobacco. Cavendish can be produced from any tobacco type but is usually one of, or a blend of, Kentucky, Virginia and burley and is most commonly used for pipe tobacco.
* [[Criollo tobacco]] is primarily used in the making of [[cigar]]s. It was by most accounts one of the original Cuban tobaccos that emerged around the time of [[Christopher Columbus|Columbus]].
* [[Dokha]] is a tobacco originally grown in [[Iran]], mixed with leaves, bark and herbs for smoking in a ''[[midwakh]]''.
* [[Perique]] was developed in 1824 through the technique of pressure-fermentation of local tobacco by a farmer, Pierre Chenet. Considered the [[truffle]] of [[smoking pipe (tobacco)|pipe]] tobaccos, it is used as a component in many blended pipe tobaccos but is too strong to be smoked pure. At one time the freshly moist Perique was also chewed, but it is no longer sold for this purpose. It is typically blended with pure Virginia to lend spice, strength and coolness to the blend.
* [[Types of tobacco#Shade tobacco|Shade tobacco]] is cultivated in [[Connecticut]] and [[Massachusetts]]. Early Connecticut [[colonist]]s acquired from the Native Americans the habit of smoking tobacco in pipes, and began cultivating the plant commercially, though the [[Puritans]] referred to it as the "evil weed". The [[Connecticut shade tobacco|Connecticut shade]] industry has weathered some major [[Disaster|catastrophes]], including a devastating [[hail]]storm in 1929 and an epidemic of brown spot fungus in 2000, and is in danger of disappearing altogether, given the increase in the value of land.
* [[Turkish tobacco]] is a sun-cured, highly aromatic, small-leafed variety (''[[Nicotiana tabacum]]'') grown in Turkey, Greece, [[Bulgaria]] and [[North Macedonia]]. Originally grown in regions historically part of the [[Ottoman Empire]], it is also known as ‘oriental’. Many of the early brands of cigarettes were made mostly or entirely of Turkish tobacco. Its main use evolved to be included in blends of pipe and especially cigarette tobacco. (A typical American cigarette is a blend of bright Virginia, burley and Turkish.)
* [[Types of tobacco#White Burley|White burley]] air-cured leaf was found to be milder than other types of tobacco. In 1865 George Webb of [[Brown County, Ohio]], planted red [[Burley (tobacco)|burley]] seeds he had purchased and found a few of the seedlings had a whitish, sickly look, which became white burley.
* [[Types of tobacco#Wild tobacco|Wild tobacco]] is native to the southwestern United States, Mexico and parts of South America. Its botanical name is ''Nicotiana rustica''.

===Parasites===
{{Main|List of tobacco diseases}}
[[File:The tobacco beetle (Page 3) BHL41830187.jpg|thumb|right|230px|Illustration with photographs of [[tobacco leaves]] infested by ''[[Lasioderma serricorne]]'' (tobacco beetles), from Runner, G. A., ''The tobacco beetle'' (1919), Bulletin of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, [[Biodiversity Heritage Library]]]]

Tobacco, alongside its [[List of tobacco products|related products]], can be infested by [[Parasitism|parasites]] such as the ''[[Lasioderma serricorne]]'' (tobacco beetle) and the ''[[Ephestia elutella]]'' (tobacco moth), which are the most widespread and damaging parasites to the [[tobacco industry]].<ref name="Ryan 1995">{{cite book |editor-last=Ryan |editor-first=L. |year=1995 |chapter=Introduction |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QzUAI2vK3XMC&pg=PA1 |title=Post-harvest Tobacco Infestation Control |location=[[Norwell, Massachusetts]] and [[Dordrecht]], Netherlands |publisher=[[Kluwer Academic Publishers]] |pages=1–4 |doi=10.1007/978-94-017-2723-5_1 |isbn=978-94-017-2723-5 }}</ref> Infestation can range from the tobacco cultivated in the fields to the [[Tobacco leaves|leaves]] used for manufacturing [[cigar]]s, [[cigarillo]]s, [[cigarette]]s, etc.<ref name="Ryan 1995"/> Both the [[larvae]] of ''Lasioderma serricorne'' and [[caterpillar]]s of ''Ephestia elutella'' are considered [[Pest (organism)|pests]].<ref name="Ryan 1995"/>