Tobacco

Researchers have found the first evidence Native Americans smoked a plant other than tobacco. Smooth sumac was likely consumed for medicinal qualities, but it's the method used to make the discovery that is really getting archaeologists excited.

After a decade of legal and political battles, the FDA finally issued a conclusive new ruling for warnings on cigarette packs. The 11 new labels will fill 50 percent of the package with text and graphic imagery depicting the consequences of smoking.

The FDA has finally approved two new low-nicotine cigarettes for the US market. The announcement comes less than a month after the FDA faced criticism for seemingly backing down on a 2017 initiative to regulate nicotine levels in cigarettes.

A new study has found e-cigarettes can damage human blood vessel cells and potentially increase the risk for cardiovascular disease. The study revealed some e-cigarette flavoring liquids are more damaging than others, regardless of nicotine concentrations.

​Made by our kidneys, interleukin 37 is a protein that has powerful anti-inflammatory properties. It's produced in small quantities in the body, but if made externally in larger amounts, it could be used to treat many conditions. Scientists have now developed a way of producing it in tobacco plants.

An international team of researchers has harnessed two known metabolic modulators, tobacco smoking and exposure to cold, to create a potential anti-obesity treatment that in early mouse experiments has successfully lowered body weight and corrected glucose intolerance.

New research has revealed a promising new candidate to help smokers kick their damaging addiction. An enzyme has been engineered that can gobble up nicotine in the bloodstream before it reaches the brain, with the compound proving to be incredibly successful in early animal tests.

​Although it's associated with nasty cigarettes, the tobacco plant is also a potential source of vaccines, biofuel and antibiotics. Now, a chemical from the plant is also being used as a bug repellent for crops, which could replace eco-unfriendly insecticides.

The world is in desperate need of new antibiotics, as bacteria continue to evolve and develop resistance to the ones we have. Now, researchers at La Trobe University have found a peptide in the flower of a tobacco plant that could be the first of a new kind of antibiotic.

A new study has found that third-hand smoke – chemical residue from cigarette smoke – can spread more pervasively than previously thought, even moving throughout a seemingly “smoke-free” building. But despite this compelling research the dangers to human health still remain unclear.

A major study examining ways of stemming the rising rates of non-communicable diseases worldwide has concluded that taxes on unhealthy products, such as sugary soft drinks and tobacco, would produce major health gains for the poor.

Offering hopes of complete eradication of polio, a team of scientists in the UK has created a synthetic polio vaccine that contains non-infectious virus particles that can be grown quickly and cheaply in a close relative of the tobacco plant.