This document provides a history of tobacco use and its health effects. It describes how tobacco was originally used by indigenous peoples in North and South America for thousands of years for medicinal, spiritual, and social purposes. When Europeans discovered tobacco in the 15th century, it was introduced around the world and cultivated as a cash crop. While tobacco had some traditional medical uses, it is now a major public health issue as smoking and smokeless tobacco can cause various cancers, lung and heart diseases, and premature death. The document outlines the spread of tobacco use in India under British colonial rule and the growth of industries like beedi production.

1. History of
Tobacco use & abuse
Some interesting facts
Dr. Vinod Jain
MS, FACS, FICS, FIAFES, FAIS, FIMSA, FLCS, FMAS, MAMS
Associate Professor
Department of Surgery
King Georg’s Medical University,
Lucknow, India

2. People usually smoke:-
• For pleasure
• To satisfy nicotine
addiction
• For social purpose
• For rituals
• For self medication

3. Today
• Tobacco is the major public health issue
• Smoking & smokeless tobacco may lead
to -
- Mouth cancer
- Lung cancer
- Lung diseases
- Heart disease
- Premature birth of baby
- Poor reproductive health in females
- Fetal defects (child is born with defects)
- Premature Death of person
(Risk is both to smokers & non-smokers)

4. Non smokers are at risk of
passive smoking

5. But
Tobacco was
introduced to the
world for
• Medicinal &
religious use

6. Tobacco plant
Botanical name –
Nicotiana tabacum
Main Alkaloid –
Nicotine

7. History of Tobacco use
• Used by native
Americans of north &
south America since
3000 BC
• Smoked in one form
or another –Since
2000 BC
(as unidentified weed
for medicinal &
social purpose)

8. Few ancients methods of
smoking

9. Discovery & Global use of
Tobacco
• Christopher Columbus (1492)
“discovered” “New world” in search of
Indian spices trade through sea route.
• Two crews noticed natives of American
island (now Cuba), burning a weed to
ward off disease & fatigue.
• The plants were brought to Europe &
cultivated for Medicinal use by these
Portuguese

10. History of Tobacco use
• Jean Nicot – French ambassador to Portugal
grew the herb to use it in many diseases
• He sent it to King Francis II, Queen Mother &
Lords of court for treating the ailments
• Popularly known as “Ambassador’s herb” or
“Nicotiana” in Nicot’s honour
• Derives modern name Nicotiana tabacum from
Nicot and Tabaco (Tabaco – cane pipe with
two branches to sniff through nostrils)

11. Medicinal use of tobacco in
Ancient time
• Used as magic herb for almost all
diseases at that time
• Called as “Holy herb” or “God’s remedy”
• John Frampton in 1577 wrote-
“Joyful News out of the new found world”
• Used through all routes of body in all
physical forms
• Tobacco was called sacred plant for
traditional use

12. Prescribed to treat all kinds of physical
and mental illnesses:
• asthma
• dropsy
• ringworm
• scabs
• scrofula
• old sores
• ulcers
• wounds
• contusions
• bruises
• carbuncles
• flatulence
• labor pains
• menstrual
periods
• halitosis
• excessive
phlegm
• headaches
• helminthiasis
• rheumatism
• tumefactions
• toothache
• plant
poisoning
• scurf
• excessive
phlegm
• venomous
bites
• breast
afflictions
• excessive
bleeding
• abscesses
• wounds caused
by arrows
• colds
• stomachaches
• constipation
• kidney stones
• eczema
• cancer
• colic
• gout
• indigestion
• rabies
• sciatica
• syncope
• cataracts
• dysentery
• diseases of
the uterus
• facial
inflammations
• tonsillitis
• epilepsy
• burns
• deafness
• cosumption
• corns
• warts
• hemorrhoids
• fevers
• nose bleeds
• venereal
diseases.

13. Traditional use of Tobacco
Tobacco used by
native Americans
for
• Ceremonial
purpose
• Medicinal purpose

14. Ceremonial use
• Communication with spirits (smoke)
• Thanking the Creator
• Praying for good harvest or better
fish catch
• Birth, wedding or funeral occasions
• Sealing the peace with enemies
(peace pipes)
• Thanks to mother earth & other spirits

15. Example of ceremonial prayer
O Great Creator,
I come before you in a humble manner
And offer you this sacred pipe.
With tears in my eyes and an ancient song from my heart
I pray.
To the four powers of creation,
To the grandfather Sun,
To the grandmother Moon,
To the Mother earth,
And to my ancestors.
May there be good health and healing for this Earth,
May there be Beauty above me,
May there be Beauty below me,
May there be Beauty in me,
May there be Beauty around me.
I ask that this world be filled with peace, Love and Beauty.

16. Traditional medical use
Even today some First Nations have
“pipe carries”
- To treat earaches, snakebites &
other wounds
- To purify mind & heal the body
- To heal the pain of toothache

17. But
• Cultivating tobacco plants in mass for use
of cigarettes & chewing removes its
spiritual & medicinal purpose & strips the
beauty of this plant
• This commercial or recreational use
(misuse) is non traditional which leads to
imbalance, addiction and disease

18. Strict warning
for tobacco
misuse was
also issued
in ancients
times.

19. • 1604 (England) –
King James I pronounced in his
“counter blast to tobacco” that
smoking was “Loathsome to eyes, hateful
to nose, harmful to the brain and
dangerous to the Lungs”
• 1633 (Turkey) –
Death penalty for smoking

20. Tobacco in India
• Portuguese brought in tobacco through
Goa in 1600 for the purpose of trade
• Initially introduced to Royal courts
• Spread to commoner in 17th
century
• Portuguese traded it for Indian textiles &
spices
• British colonial rule magnified the tobacco
production & consumption (Import of
American tobacco to India)

21. Tobacco in India
• British East India company grew tobacco in India
as cash crop
Cultivated tobacco in India
Exported to Britain
Re-imported cigarettes to India to
earn revenue

22. Tobacco in India
• In late Nineteenth century Beedi industry
grew in India
• Oldest Beedi manufacturing firm
established in 1887
• Tax policies of Indian Government after
Independence also favoured Beedi
consumption

23. • Introduction of Gutkha (oral tobacco)
has opened New front between
commercial tobacco use and public
health
Tobacco in India

24. Tobacco use in India
Brake in tobacco control
• Ready revenues from cash crop
• Export to tobacco-hungry world market
• Employment opportunities to millions
• Half-hearted political will
• Lack of self control
• Glamorous advertisement of Tobacco
• Lack of moral education

25. Napoleon Bonaparte once said -
“This vice brings
100 millions francs
each year. I will
certainly forbid it
at once- as soon
as you can name a
virtue that brings
in, as much as
revenue.”

26. Do you like to convert these
beautiful plants into
“death sticks”?
“Death sticks”

27. THANK
YOU
FOR
PATIENT
HEARING