Greetings friends of @naturalmedicine I hope you are healthy and happy ... Responding to the call you have made to participate in the challenge tobacco (poison or medicine) here I bring you my entry to participate.
Tobacco has a name by which it is scientifically known as nicotiana tabacum, it is also known as sacred herb and tobacco. This is native to the tropical and subtropical Americas, it is a robust annual plant that can reach up to 2.5 meters tall, little branched, with large green leaves and white flowers.
Tobacco is a very controversial plant. Among its active ingredients are nicotine, cotinine, myosmin, nicotyrine, anabasin and nicothelin. In addition, in this plant, several other substances are found and some are very toxic, such as turpentine, formaldehyde, ammonia and naphthalene. Back in the days, tobacco was believed to be a great remedy for many diseases, such as headaches, stomach ailments, ulcers, migraines, gingivitis, and toothaches. In the 17th century, this plant began to receive criticism, and in the mid-20th century, some researchers demonstrated that tobacco causes cancer.
The first people who learned to use the plant as a wound healer were the Indians because of this in some places, the plant came to be called "sacred herb", this because of its medicinal properties, such as anti-inflammatory, antiparasitic, hypertensive, narcotic, sedatives, vermifuges and insecticides.
tobacco seedlings
Despite being used to treat diseases in the past, its effectiveness in medicinal use has not been demonstrated. Israeli researchers in recent years have genetically modified tobacco and created artemisinin, a drug that works quickly against malaria, from it.
Tobacco has different more common uses, these are smoking it or inhaling it through cigarettes, cigars, pipes and tobacco. The infusion of its leaves can be used externally to treat scabies, lice, ticks, toothaches and insect bites.
Tobacco is contraindicated for children, pregnant women, and nursing mothers. The consumption of the plant in the form of cigarettes can cause various diseases, such as cancer, emphysema, respiratory tract infection and pneumonia.
When used in high doses, it can lower blood pressure, cause tremors in the hands, headache, dizziness, leg weakness, loss of appetite, salivation, gaps, chest pain, digestion problems, nausea, diarrhea , vomiting and cardiorespiratory failure.
Culturally speaking ...
In eastern Venezuela, specifically in the Sucre State, tobacco has been cultivated and manufactured for family support since remote times. Many mothers raised their children professionally and those who do not like to study send them to the tobacco crops. They have this as family customs every day from 3:00 am to 7:00 am a mother manually makes more than 500 tobaccos.
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Thanks @daniel2001
¡Qué buenas fotos Lorennys! algún día me gustaría visitar un cultivo de tabaco. Es muy interesante lo que comentas sobre las madres que arman los tabacos manualmente. El tabaco se asocia mucho a lo masculino, pero son principalmente mujeres las que intervienen en su manufactura. ¡Gracias por compartir!
Gracias @escriptora, en el puebo donde vivo hay muchos cultivos. Tienes razón, aquí los hombres cultivan el tabaco pero son las mujeres quienes lo trabajan. Saludos
Wow, it's really amazing to see the SIZE of the plant! Especially the plant that's been used for smoking tobacco. Thanks so much for your great entry! I'd love to know more about your personal experience too - that'd really make your post shine! xxx @riverflows
As for my personal experience with tobacco, I can add that my grandfather in the town where he lived in the eastern state of Sucre, smoked and chewed handmade tobacco, I remember this from my childhood, then I went to live in the city There, I saw some men who smoked imported cigars of what they call (cigars) they came in thin wooden boxes and marked with a label that identified them.
Over the years I got married and returned to the same town where my grandfather lived in the east of the Sucre state and despite having spent so many years I found that there are still many women and many men who dedicate themselves to making tobacco by hand in an artisanal way for the livelihoods of their families.
Thank you interested in my content. @riverflows
thanks for the info..I smoke but I am also on the look out for a natural way to smoke. Since I roll my own which I hope is cutting down on the toxic that the factories or labs may put into store bought. any thoughts and opinions welcome.