Nicotine-replacement products

Nicotine Nicotine Blood, urine, saliva, hair 1-2 h Yes Nicotine replacement products... 

Smoking cessation aids Nicotine polacrilex gum dosage varies consult product labeling Nicorette, various generic Nicotine replacement products in combination with behavioral support approximately double long-term cessation rates compared with placebo. Review directions for use carefully, since product strengths vary and self-titration and tapering may be necessary. 

This plant is used in the production of cigars, cigarettes, chewing tobacco, and nicotine replacement products. 

A range of nicotine replacement products is available to help smokers give up. 

Nicotine replacement products have relatively few side effects. Nausea and light-headedness are possible signs of nicotine overdose that warrant a reduction of the nicotine dose. 

Nicotine is responsible for the highly addictive properties of tobacco products. Addiction occurs in 30% of those who experiment with tobacco products, and more than 80% of those who attempt to quit smoking will relapse within a year. Withdrawal from nicotine produces a syndrome characterized by nicotine craving as well as dysphoria, anxiety, irritability, restlessness and increased appetite. It is treated with nicotine replacement therapies, such as nicotine gum and patches, and/or with buproprion, a drug that is classified as an antidepressant but has multiple and complex effects in brain. Buproprion reduces craving in some smokers. Nicotine addiction has been reviewed recently at cellular and systems levels [38-41]. 

An understanding of the pharmacology of nicotine and how nicotine produces addiction and influences smoking behavior provides a necessary basis for therapeutic advances in smoking cessation interventions. This chapter provides a review of several aspects of the human pharmacology of nicotine. These include the presence and levels of nicotine and related alkaloids in tobacco products, the absorption of nicotine from tobacco products and nicotine medications, the distribution of nicotine in body tissues, the metabolism and renal excretion of nicotine, nicotine and cotinine blood levels during tobacco use or nicotine replacement therapy, and biomarkers of nicotine exposure. For more details and references on the pharmacokinetics and metabolism of nicotine, the reader is referred to Hukkanen et al. (2005c). 

Ingestion of 60 mg of nicotine can be fatal to an adult. This is an amount that might be ingested with exposure to some insecticide sprays. A smaller amount is toxic to children and pets who accidentally ingest tobacco products. Tobacco pickers and patients on nicotine replacement therapy who continue to smoke have also experienced nicotine toxicity. Symptoms include salivation, dizziness, vomiting, tremors, convulsions, and severely low blood pressure. Death may result in a few minutes due to respiratory failure caused by lung paralysis. 

Nicotine is obtained from tobacco plants by extraction or steam distillation. Particularly suitable for this, just as for caffeine, is destraction with supercritical carbon dioxide. [567] Nicotine-rich Mapacho is cultivated for this purpose in the USA but also the waste from tobacco processing is a suitable source. The annual worldwide production for pharmaceutical purposes reaches a total of around 35-40 tonnes, whereof most is attributed to nicotine replacement therapy (nicotine containing patches, nasal spray, chewing gum, lollipops) for smoking cessation. 

The primary use of nicotine is nowadays for products in nicotine replacement therapy to support smoking cessation. 

Nicotine is an example of a natural insecticide that has been in use for many years. Pyrethrln, a crude mixture of natural pyrethroids, was used by Caucasian tribes as an insecticide before 1800. The extract of pyrethrum from chrysanthemum clnaerlaefolum contains pyrethrlns, clnerins and jasmolins. Although this product was a valuable insecticide when few effective insecticides were available, its use in agriculture has been limited by its photochemical instability. Replacement of such naturally occurring insecticides by compounds synthesized from petrochemicals was favoured by wartime conditions. 

Alkaloids are basically compound ammonias, where one or more atoms of hydrogen are replaced by various radicals. Alkaloids combine with acids to form crystalline salts without the production of water. Majorities of alkaloid exsit in solid form like atropine and they contain oxygen. Some alkaloids like lobeline or nicotine occur in liquid from and contain carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen. 

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