Nicotiana tabacum · PhytoNexus

01 Identity and provenance

Accepted binomial: Nicotiana tabacum
Common names: Tobacco
Family (APG IV): Solanaceae
Part used: Leaf
Verification tier: Tier 2 · Verified Clinical columns reviewed and a source is on record.
Reviewer note (2026 audit): Ziska LH & Parks RM. Commun Med 2024;4:10.1038/s43856-024-00584-x | Gehlbach SH et al. JAMA 1974;229:1880-3 | VERIFIED 2026 (batch 3) - synthetic analogue, application, interactions, side effects and references populated from retrieved primary/regulatory sources. Interactions labelled CLINICAL vs THEORETICAL. Marketed-formulation column intentionally blank. | ROUTE

02 Constituent chemistry

Chemical class	Marker compound	Synthetic analogue in use
Pyridine alkaloids	Nicotine Leaf	Nicotine replacement products (patch, gum, lozenge) - nicotine is the compound itself. Varenicline and cytisine are partial nAChR agonists.

The analogue column is what makes the interaction reasoning tractable: where a constituent has a marketed structural counterpart, the counterpart's interaction profile is the starting hypothesis for the plant.

Looking up structures and physicochemical properties from PubChem…

03 Stated application

Reported activity: NO THERAPEUTIC USE of the plant. Isolated nicotine is used in smoking cessation. Listed here for occupational-health relevance.
Reported adverse effects: GREEN TOBACCO SICKNESS - acute nicotine poisoning from TRANSDERMAL absorption in harvesters handling wet uncured leaf. HIGHLY RELEVANT TO INDIAN AGRICULTURAL PRACTICE: prevalence has shifted to China, India and Brazil, with roughly 8 million affected worldwide including women and children; reported prevalence ranges from 0.08% to about 57% across studies. Nausea, vomiting, pallor, dizziness, headache, sweating, chills, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, salivation, weakness, breathlessness, hypotension. Risk rises with dew- or rain-wet leaf and with heat (increased surface blood flow). PREVENTION: washing with soap and water immediately after work removes about 96% of skin nicotine; avoid harvesting wet leaf.

04 Interaction matrix

Source column, verbatim: CLINICAL: additive with nicotine replacement therapy. Smoking induces CYP1A2 (a combustion effect, not a nicotine effect) - relevant to clozapine, olanzapine and theophylline dosing.
Normalised onto 2 canonical drug classes below.

Curated from the reviewed source

Drug class	Severity	Mechanism type	Provenance	Expected effect
Narrow-therapeutic-index CYP3A4 substrates Pharmacokinetic	4Contraindicated	PK-CYP3A4	curated A	Toxic accumulation or subtherapeutic failure of the co-prescribed drug, s…	why ▾
Chemistry of this pair. Alkaloidal bases have pH-dependent absorption and commonly interact with hepatic CYP isoenzymes and efflux transporters. Class mechanism. Furanocoumarins, bergamottin, piperine, glabridin and berberine inhibit CYP3A4; hyperforin, andrographolide and several diterpenes induce it through PXR. Because CYP3A4 handles roughly half of marketed drugs, the affected list is broad and the direction is product-specific. Expected Toxic accumulation or subtherapeutic failure of the co-prescribed drug, sometimes fatal for antiarrhythmics, immunosuppressants and oncology agents. Management Screen the full regimen for 3A4 substrates. Where the substrate has a narrow index, avoid rather than monitor. Onset unspecified Evidence A - human data with a cited source Matched on “cyp1a2” Find evidence for this pair Map this mechanism
Antipsychotics CNS	3Major	PD-additive + PK-CYP	curated A	Extrapyramidal symptoms, QT prolongation, excess sedation, or loss of ant…	why ▾
Class mechanism. Additive dopaminergic blockade, QT prolongation and sedation, plus CYP1A2, 2D6 and 3A4 modulation of clozapine, risperidone and quetiapine exposure. Expected Extrapyramidal symptoms, QT prolongation, excess sedation, or loss of antipsychotic control with inducers. Management ECG if other QT-prolonging agents are present. Consider clozapine level monitoring where inducers are stopped or started. Onset rapid Evidence A - human data with a cited source Matched on “clozapine” Find evidence for this pair Map this mechanism

Predicted from constituent chemistry

These edges are not clinical findings. Each one is a rule inference: a constituent class in this plant is known to act on a target that the drug class also acts on. They are shown because a blank cell reads as “safe”, and for a Tier 1 entry a blank cell only means “not yet looked at”. Treat them as a literature-search agenda, not as a warning.

Drug class	Severity	Mechanism type	Provenance	Expected effect
Antacids, PPIs and H2 blockers Gastrointestinal	2Moderate	PK-absorption	predicted D	Reduced or erratic absorption of alkaloids; heartburn and reflux from pre…	why ▾
Chemistry of this pair. Alkaloidal bases have pH-dependent absorption and commonly interact with hepatic CYP isoenzymes and efflux transporters. Class mechanism. Gastric pH elevation alters the dissolution and ionisation of alkaloidal and enteric-coated botanical products; menthol- and peppermint-oil products lose their enteric protection at high pH and can be released prematurely. Expected Reduced or erratic absorption of alkaloids; heartburn and reflux from premature release of volatile-oil preparations. Management Separate administration by 2 hours. Avoid non-enteric peppermint oil in reflux disease. Onset unspecified Evidence D - in silico rule prediction only Find evidence for this pair Map this mechanism

05 Hazard register

exposure route - occupational transdermal absorption from wet le

06 Confusable material

These entries could be mistaken for this one in trade, in the herbarium, or in a prescription. Powdered material is often indistinguishable, so the check is macroscopic, microscopic and chromatographic rather than nominal.

Lobelia inflata

Indian Tobacco

Campanulaceae

Shares the common name "tobacco"

07 Mechanism map

Chemistry sorts to the left, pharmacology to the right. Dashed edges are predicted. Drag nodes, scroll to zoom, export at 3× for a figure.

species

chemical class

marker compound

drug class

expected effect

hazard

08 Open literature

Abstract-scoped query built from this binomial, its common names and its marker compounds, run live against Europe PMC, PubMed and OpenAlex, then ranked locally against an evidence hierarchy.

Checking openFDA spontaneous reports…

09 Isomechanistic neighbours

Species whose interaction profile overlaps this one, ranked by shared severity weight rather than by count — a shared contraindication counts for more than a shared minor signal. Practical use: these are the plants you should not stack with this one, because the mechanisms summate.

Species	Family	Shared classes	Jaccard
Atropa belladonna Belladonna	Solanaceae	3	0.60
Hyoscyamus niger Henbane	Solanaceae	3	0.60
Datura stramonium Datura	Solanaceae	3	0.60
Mucuna pruriens Mucuna	Fabaceae	3	0.60
Erythroxylum coca Coca	Erythroxylaceae	3	0.60
Duboisia myoporoides Corkwood	Solanaceae	3	0.50

10 References and notes

Source column: Fotedar S & Fotedar V. Indian J Occup Environ Med 2017;21:101-4. doi:10.4103/ijoem.IJOEM_160_17

Fotedar S & Fotedar V. Indian J Occup Environ Med 2017

Fotedar S 2017 manual

21:101-4. doi:10.4103/ijoem.IJOEM_160_17

doi:10.4103/ijoem.IJOEM_160_17 manual

BibTeX for all 2 records

@article{FotedarS2017,
  title = {Fotedar S & Fotedar V. Indian J Occup Environ Med 2017},
  author = {Fotedar S},
  year = {2017},
}

@article{anon,
  title = {21:101-4. doi:10.4103/ijoem.IJOEM_160_17},
  doi = {10.4103/ijoem.IJOEM_160_17},
}

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