Tobacco is a product prepared from the leaves of the American tobacco plant. The leaves are cured and matured in storage for two to three years.
The tobacco plant is grown in warm dry climates for use in cigars and cigarettes, and in powdered form as snuff.
While more than 70 species of tobacco are known, the chief commercial crop is Nicotiana tabacum.
Tobacco has been smoked in the Americas since at least 5000 BC.
The Aztec goddess Cihuacoatl was said to have had a body consisting of tobacco.
On October 15, 1492, the American Indians offered Christopher Columbus a bundle of dry tobacco leaves. It was the first time a European had seen tobacco.
Rodrigo de Jerez, a crewman of Columbus, was the first known European smoker. He was thrown in jail for it as exhaling smoke was seen as satanic.
The word 'tabaco' in Spanish was originally used for the pipe or tube through which native Americans inhaled tobacco smoke.
Nicotine is named after the French ambassador to Portugal, Jean Nicot, who introduced tobacco to France in 1560. He sent the queen of France, Catherine de Medici, leaves of the plant. She took it in a mixture of snuff.
Francis II, the newly crowned young French king used tobacco to cure his headaches. It became known as a cure for many ailments including arthritis, headache, stomach ache, toothache and bad breath.
The word tobacco was first seen in English in 1577. Tobacconist, in 1600, meant a heavy smoker.
The 1585 expedition to Roanoke Island on the outer banks of Virginia, which was funded by Sir Walter Raleigh brought tobacco back to England on July 27, 1586.
Although Raleigh is widely credited with introducing tobacco to Britain, the French and Spanish had brought it there previously when he was a child.
English astronomer, mathematician and translator Thomas Harriot who accompanied the 1585 expedition to Roanoke Island smoked tobacco before Raleigh, and may have taught him to do so. Pipes for smoking tobacco were first mentioned in English by Harriot.
During the tobacco craze that followed the first imports of the weed to Britain, everybody smoked it in the belief that it had a powerfully healthy effect. For a time, boys at Eton school were beaten for neglecting to smoke their tobacco.
'Funk' was originally a Tudor word for the stale smell of tobacco smoke.
King James I of England (VI of Scotland) was a fervent opponent of smoking. He wrote in 1604 a book called A Counterblaste to Tobacco. In it he wrote "smoking is a custom loathsome to the eye. Hateful to the nose. Harmful to the brain. Dangerous to the lungs."
Upon his death, Walter Raleigh was buried with his favorite pipe and a tin of tobacco.
In 1638, China made use or distribution of tobacco a crime, punishable by decapitation.
Tobacco smoking, chewing, and snuffing became a major industry in Europe and its colonies by 1700.
After Germany discovered the link between smoking and lung cancer, the Nazis initiated a strong anti-tobacco movement. Hitler himself called tobacco "the wrath of the Red Man against the White Man, vengeance for having been given hard liquor."
Tobacco has been recognized since the 1950s as a health hazard.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are more than one billion smokers in the world and tobacco usage is rising in poorer countries.
There are 1 billion people on Earth addicted to tobacco—it is linked to 11% of deaths in males and 6% of deaths in females every year.
According to the WHO, tobacco kills an average of one person every six seconds.
The US Food and Drug Administration reports that there are 93 harmful and potentially harmful constituents in tobacco and tobacco smoke.
China, the world's largest producer and consumer of tobacco, is home to at least 350 million smokers.
The Caribbean island of Tobago took its name from tobacco, possible because of its cigar or pipe-like shape.
Source Daily Express
The tobacco plant is grown in warm dry climates for use in cigars and cigarettes, and in powdered form as snuff.
 |
| Pixiebay |
While more than 70 species of tobacco are known, the chief commercial crop is Nicotiana tabacum.
HISTORY
Tobacco has been smoked in the Americas since at least 5000 BC.
The Aztec goddess Cihuacoatl was said to have had a body consisting of tobacco.
On October 15, 1492, the American Indians offered Christopher Columbus a bundle of dry tobacco leaves. It was the first time a European had seen tobacco.
 |
| Tobacco leaves. Pixiebay |
Rodrigo de Jerez, a crewman of Columbus, was the first known European smoker. He was thrown in jail for it as exhaling smoke was seen as satanic.
The word 'tabaco' in Spanish was originally used for the pipe or tube through which native Americans inhaled tobacco smoke.
Nicotine is named after the French ambassador to Portugal, Jean Nicot, who introduced tobacco to France in 1560. He sent the queen of France, Catherine de Medici, leaves of the plant. She took it in a mixture of snuff.
Francis II, the newly crowned young French king used tobacco to cure his headaches. It became known as a cure for many ailments including arthritis, headache, stomach ache, toothache and bad breath.
The word tobacco was first seen in English in 1577. Tobacconist, in 1600, meant a heavy smoker.
 |
| The earliest depiction of a European man smoking, from Tobacco by Anthony Chute, 1595 |
The 1585 expedition to Roanoke Island on the outer banks of Virginia, which was funded by Sir Walter Raleigh brought tobacco back to England on July 27, 1586.
Although Raleigh is widely credited with introducing tobacco to Britain, the French and Spanish had brought it there previously when he was a child.
English astronomer, mathematician and translator Thomas Harriot who accompanied the 1585 expedition to Roanoke Island smoked tobacco before Raleigh, and may have taught him to do so. Pipes for smoking tobacco were first mentioned in English by Harriot.
 |
| Raleigh's First Pipe in England", included in Frederick William Fairholt's Tobacco, its history. |
During the tobacco craze that followed the first imports of the weed to Britain, everybody smoked it in the belief that it had a powerfully healthy effect. For a time, boys at Eton school were beaten for neglecting to smoke their tobacco.
'Funk' was originally a Tudor word for the stale smell of tobacco smoke.
King James I of England (VI of Scotland) was a fervent opponent of smoking. He wrote in 1604 a book called A Counterblaste to Tobacco. In it he wrote "smoking is a custom loathsome to the eye. Hateful to the nose. Harmful to the brain. Dangerous to the lungs."
Upon his death, Walter Raleigh was buried with his favorite pipe and a tin of tobacco.
In 1638, China made use or distribution of tobacco a crime, punishable by decapitation.
Tobacco smoking, chewing, and snuffing became a major industry in Europe and its colonies by 1700.
 |
| An illustration from Frederick William Fairholt's Tobacco, its History and Association, 1859 |
After Germany discovered the link between smoking and lung cancer, the Nazis initiated a strong anti-tobacco movement. Hitler himself called tobacco "the wrath of the Red Man against the White Man, vengeance for having been given hard liquor."
Tobacco has been recognized since the 1950s as a health hazard.
FUN TOBACCO FACTS
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are more than one billion smokers in the world and tobacco usage is rising in poorer countries.
There are 1 billion people on Earth addicted to tobacco—it is linked to 11% of deaths in males and 6% of deaths in females every year.
According to the WHO, tobacco kills an average of one person every six seconds.
The US Food and Drug Administration reports that there are 93 harmful and potentially harmful constituents in tobacco and tobacco smoke.
China, the world's largest producer and consumer of tobacco, is home to at least 350 million smokers.
The Caribbean island of Tobago took its name from tobacco, possible because of its cigar or pipe-like shape.
Source Daily Express
No comments:
Post a Comment