Extraction and High Purification of Nicotine from Iraqi Tobacco Leaf Formanufacturing, Pharmaceutical, and Medicinal Uses

Abstract

Bachground: Nicotine is highly addictive plant derived alkaloid and the most important species in human
use today is Nicotianatabacum. There are direct health effects of chronic nicotine exposure. Even in low
doses, nicotine causes vasoconstriction and other cardiovascular effects related to catecholamine release and
promote angiogenesis, neuroteratogenicity, and possibly some cancers. Methods: A preliminary investigation
to analyze the nicotine contained in Iraqi tobacco leaves was carried out using gas chromatography-mass
spectrometry (GC-MS). Nicotine is an alkaloid, and alkali methanol and Lipophilic solventsystem methods
(LSS) have been extracted and determined by GC-MS from tobacco leaves. Results: The detection limit for
nicotine was for non-selective monitoring at the ppm level and for selective detection at the nanogram level.
This is a simple method of thin layer chromatography (TLC) and chromatography mass spectrometry (GCMS)
for the tobacco leave analysis of nicotine. The final purity of nicotine is 99%. Conclusion :the methods
which used in this study gave very high purity of nicotineafter converting the crude nicotine to its esters.