Dictionary.net

tall erect South American herb with large ovate leaves and terminal clusters of tubular white or pink flowers; cultivated for its leaves

tall erect South American herb with large ovate leaves and terminal clusters of tubular white or pink flowers; cultivated for its leaves

Tobacco is a violent acro-narcotic; its properties seeming to depend upon a peculiar principle, Nicotin or Nicotiauin. It is narcotic, sedative, diuretic, emetic, cathartic, and errhine. In incarcerated hernia, it is injected, in the form of smoke or infusion, but requires great caution. It is extensively and habitually used as an errhine and sialogogue. The infusion is used to kill vermin, and in some cutaneous eruptions.

Virginian tobacco plant; indigenous to tropical America, now widely cultivated in both hemispheres. The dried leaves, the tabacum of the U. S. Ph. 1890, have a peculiar penetrating odor wanting in the fresh plant. They contain nicotin, nicotianin, a very small percentage of essential oil, and several acids. Tobacco smoke is very complex in composition, but, if nicotin is excepted, the only constituents found in appreciable quantities are numerous basic substances of the picolinic series. A dark brown, acrid, highly poisonous empyreumatic oil is obtained from tobacco by distillation. Tobacco, used in moderation, causes in those accustomed to its use a gentle exhilaration or a state of quietude and repose. Tobacco was formerly much used for various disorders, but its use is attended with danger, as its poisonous principle is easily absorbed by the skin. [From J. Nicot, who is said to have brought the plant from France.]