the Tobacco Plant as Hero

Before the market collapsed and the economy sank state and local budgets, I was in support of increasing tobacco taxes and imposing public smoking bans. At least three years ago, I wrote a handful of letters to the editor regarding tobacco. Some were published in the Winston Salem Journal. I was aware then as I am now, that beyond tobacco companies, for whom I have no sympathy, there are tobacco farmers and cigarette factory workers whose income and skill is intricately tied to this deadly industry.

I once proposed that the tobacco companies find a way to make tobacco an alternative fuel. I see now that it would be harmful to have many of the same chemicals in cigarettes emitted through exhaust. I had also proposed that the tobacco farmers’ change crops altogether and use those as an alternative fuel. That idea remains a valid one in my opinion.

Today we have yet another use for tobacco, one that can save lives and prevent illness instead of taking lives and causing morbidity. The tobacco plant can be a creator of vaccines.

The most recent and perhaps only successful example of this process thus far, is a vaccine created for the norovirus. It is very cool in that the tobacco plant is stimulated to create a protein that it forms into a little ball. When this protein ball is placed in an animal the immune system recognizes it as a virus and attacks it, which creates the antibodies, but the ball has NO virus in it, it’s a dummy virus! How cool.

Norovirus does not generally kill people, but it does quarantine whole cruise ships of people. A vaccine would likely be voluntary, and not make a company too much money. I understand that plant based vaccine development is a new and growing field. Creating vaccines in plants is faster than the way most are done now, in eggs.

While reviewing and writing about this, I came up with a question that I am surprised I never had before, which is, where does the nicotine used in nicotine replacement therapy come from? If it is taken from the plant itself, then the tobacco farmers would still have a use for their crop if cigarettes and other tobacco products were banned. I have emailed a tobacco expert to find out, and will let you know as I know.

Post script: Well, my tobacco expert, and I mean national expert, did not know the answer and suggested that I contact GlaxoSmtihKline which produces many of the products. It actually took four people at the pharmaceutical company before I got my answer. They do sell a patch, gum and lozenge all of which are created by using nicotine from the tobacco plant itself. I think that this is great. I am not anti plant or anti tobacco farmer, just anti tobacco products that kill.