Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum)

Growing With Purpose — From Plant to Traditional, Ceremonial & Crafted Products

Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) is a plant with a complicated relationship to health and wellness. Modern commercial tobacco products, particularly cigarettes and other smoked products, are associated with serious health risks. Yet the tobacco plant also has a much older history that includes ceremonial, spiritual, cultural and practical uses among Indigenous peoples of the Americas.

For Plant Profiles, tobacco offers an opportunity to look beyond commercial tobacco and learn about the whole plant: how it grows, what compounds it contains, how it has traditionally been used, and what can be created from plant material.

It also teaches an essential wellness lesson:

Natural does not automatically mean safe.

Tobacco contains nicotine, a potent and addictive alkaloid. Growing or learning about tobacco does not require consuming it. It can instead become part of learning about pl