Does Tobacco have any extraordinary chemicals present within it?

[Lan(r)12]

The FDA has opted to regulate tobacco, and as such, the tobacco companies will be required to list alot more of the ingredients within cigarettes.

 

Id like to ask all of the biochemists or chemists out there if the tobacco plant contained any more of those crazy sounding chemicals (like hydrooxytetra-ect ect) than any other organic plant that went through the same curing process and was smoked.

 

Or do almost all plant contain them, its just that not all plants are inhaled like tobacco is?

 

Thanks for the help

[insane_alien]

all plants contain a massive amount of chemicals with funky names(infact, most chemicals have a funky sounding name to those who are not familiar with chemistry).

 

the only thing special about tobacco is that i contains significant amounts of nicotine(also known as 3-[(2S)-1-methylpyrrolidin-2-yl]pyridine ).

[Mokele]

Basically, if you can't run away from predators (herbivores) or move at all, you need some other way to defend yourself. Some plants use physical means (tough bark, spines), but many use chemicals to poison their attackers. What's poison to an insect or fungus, however, may be useful to us by blind luck.