Correspondence

The Nicotine Content of Common Vegetables

N Engl J Med 1993; 329:437August 5, 1993

Article

To the Editor:

The presence of nicotine and its metabolite cotinine in the body fluids of nonsmokers is usually taken as evidence of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke. Recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studied 800 people, both smokers and nonsmokers, all of whom tested positive for urinary cotinine1.

There is considerable evidence that nicotine is present in certain human foods, especially plants from the family Solanaceae (such as potatoes, tomatoes, and eggplant). Castro and Monji,2 Sheen,3 and Davis et al.4 have reported on the nicotine content of foods and drinks. We have been able to confirm some of their findings in our laboratory. Gas chromatography and mass spectroscopy5 were used to determine the nicotine and cotinine content of common vegetables and black tea available from a local supermarket. The vegetables analyzed were tomatoes, potatoes, cauliflower, and green peppers. They were thoroughly washed with tap water, as is done for human consumption. All the vegetables were treated in a similar manner so that any contamination from the tap water would be equally applicable. The vegetables (including their skins) were diced, pureed in a blender, prepared,4 and assayed5.

Cotinine could not be detected in any of the samples. Measurable amounts of nicotine were found in some of the vegetables (Table 1Table 1Nicotine Content of Common Vegetables.). Green peppers, black tea, and Ann Arbor city water had no detectable nicotine. Table 1 compares the results of the present study with those previously reported.

In indoor air, a low concentration of nicotine from tobacco smoke is about 1 μg per cubic meter. A person weighing 70 kg with a tidal volume of 4 ml per kilogram of body weight breathing 20 times per minute would exchange 5.6 liters of air per minute. If we assume that nicotine is completely absorbed from the lungs, it would take 179 minutes, or about 3 hours, of breathing in an environment with minimal smoke to absorb 1 μg of nicotine. Table 1 shows the amount of each vegetable by wet weight one would have to eat to obtain an amount of nicotine comparable to that of a passive smoker. Of course, the route of absorption is quite different in eating as compared with inhaling. Furthermore, if the vegetables are thoroughly cooked, the nicotine will diffuse into the cooking water and less will be ingested. It appears that the dietary intake of nicotine in nonsmokers may be of practical importance in the interpretation of the role of passive smoke inhalation when one is determining nicotine and cotinine levels in body fluids.

Edward F. Domino, M.D.
Erich Hornbach, B.A.
Tsenge Demana, Ph.D.
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109

5 References

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   Domino EF, Hariharan M, VanNoord T, Demana T. Current experience with HPLC and GC-MS analyses of nicotine and cotinine. Med Sci Res 1992;20:859-860
   

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   Seiko Sasaki, Titilola S. Braimoh, Thamar A. Yila, Eiji Yoshioka, Reiko Kishi. (2011) Self-reported tobacco smoke exposure and plasma cotinine levels during pregnancy – A validation study in Northern Japan. Science of The Total Environment
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   André Conrad. 2011. Exposure to Tobacco Smoke. , 67-91.
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   James N. Hyde, Doug Brugge, James Repace, William Rand. (2004) Assessment of Sources of Second-Hand Smoke Exposure in a Putatively Unexposed Population. Archives of Environmental Health: An International Journal 59:11, 553-557
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   Joachim Heinrich, Bernd Hölscher, Margarete Seiwert, Cara L Carty, Günter Merkel, Christine Schulz. (2004) Nicotine and cotinine in adults' urine: The German Environmental Survey 1998. Journal of Exposure Analysis and Environmental Epidemiology
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   Orazio Taglialatela-Scafati, Giovanni Appendino. 2003. Drug-like compounds from food plants and spices. , 43-74.
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   S. Balabanova, F.W. Rösing, G. Bühler, S. Hauser, J. Rosenthal. (2001) Nicotine use in early Mediaeval Kirchheim/Teck, Germany. HOMO - Journal of Comparative Human Biology 52:1, 72-76
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    B FURBEE, M WERMUTH. (1997) LIFE-THREATENING PLANT POISONING. Critical Care Clinics 13:4, 849-888
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    James L. Repace, Alfred H. Lowrey. (1995) A Rebuttal to Tobacco Industry Criticism of "An Enforceable Indoor Air Quality Standard for Environmental Tobacco Smoke". Risk Analysis 15:1, 7-13
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    Franz Parsche, Andreas Nerlich. (1995) Presence of drugs in different tissues of an egyptian mummy. Fresenius' Journal of Analytical Chemistry 352:3-4, 380-384
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    N. Urakawa, T. Nagata, K. Kudo, K. Kimura, T. Imamura. (1994) Simultaneous determination of nicotine and cotinine in various human tissues using capillary gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. International Journal of Legal Medicine 106:5, 232-236
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    A.Judson Wells. (1994) Passive smoking as a cause of heart disease. Journal of the American College of Cardiology 24:2, 546-554
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    (1993) More on the Nicotine Content of Vegetables. New England Journal of Medicine 329:21, 1581-1582
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    Sarah Ramsay. (1993) Passive smoking or vegetables?. The Lancet 342:8869, 487
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