Tobacco originated in South America and was widely planted in various places. About 3.8 million hectares of agricultural land are used for tobacco planting. Chinese tobacco can be traced back to the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty. According to relevant documents, from the late 15th century to the early 16th century, tobacco was introduced to Taiwan, China, and then to Fujian Province through Taiwan. Later, it was introduced to Guangdong and Liaodong regions of China from Vietnam, North Korea and other territories, and then widely spread in various provinces.
Tobacco planting and production have developed rapidly in China. Today, China is one of the four major tobacco-growing countries, and its tobacco output has reached 35% of the total output. Among them, the tobacco industry in Yunnan and Guizhou is developing in full swing, and tobacco fiscal tax has become the main income of local finances.
The current application field of tobacco is relatively narrow, mainly used in the production of cigarettes, and due to the immaturity of related processing technology, tobacco resources are wasted in the process of cigarette processing. China produces millions of tons of tobacco leaves each year, of which nearly 25% of the scraps are discarded. Therefore, it is of great social significance to strengthen the comprehensive utilization of tobacco resources and the development and research of its series of products.
The ingredients in tobacco leaves are relatively complex. According to relevant research results, there are about 3,000 substances that have been identified in tobacco leaves. Among these complex ingredients, tobacco alkaloids are a type of substance with a higher content in tobacco, which is commonly found in more than 60 types of tobacco. Nicotine is an important component of tobacco alkaloids, commonly known as nicotine. In traditional cognition, nicotine is not good for human health, but with the continuous deepening of research on the value of nicotine, nicotine has important applications in the fields of pesticide production, disease treatment and tobacco industry.
Nicotine sulfate with a nicotine content of more than 40% is known as a "green pesticide". Compared with chemical pesticides, it has the advantages of low toxicity, no residue, non-toxicity, and no drug resistance in the insecticide process. In recent years, many new nicotine insecticides have also been developed. Nicotine can also be used as a drug for the treatment of skin diseases, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. At the same time, nicotine can also be used as an additive in the production of tobacco products, which can change the taste of cigarettes, improve the grade of cigarettes, and reduce the production cost of cigarettes.
At present, the main methods for extracting nicotine include solvent extraction, supercritical carbon dioxide extraction, low eutectic solvent extraction, anaerobic thermal cracking, etc. Among them, it is common to extract useful components from plants by using the difference in solubility of solvents for various substances. The extraction of nicotine by this method is simple to operate and has an industrial basis. The nicotine concentration obtained can reach more than 40%, which is the choice of many related practitioners.
With the wide application of nicotine in various fields, the market demand for nicotine is also increasing. In recent years, many people have plans to extract nicotine from waste tobacco and tobacco stems. However, due to the small number of related practitioners and the fact that many people have only a superficial understanding of the nicotine extraction process, the plan is difficult to implement, and even the choice of equipment is very limited.