Stimulants 2 Flashcards
Genus and Family Name for Tobacco
- genus Nicotiana
- family Solanaceae
- nicotiana tabacum
Tobacco was a traditional medicine used to treat
asthma, cough, toothache, sedative
Introduction of Tobacco to Europe
- 1492, columbus in Cuba
- 1500, Jean Nicot introduces tobacco to France
- 1700, linnaeus
Tobacco and US colonization
- 1612, virginia colony obtains seeds of N.tabacum which becomes knows as Virginia tobacco
- 1619, major export of American colonies to england
Tobacco Plantations
- forerunners of other plantations: tea, coffee, cotton, hemp and wheat
- harvesting tobacco dangerous
Green tobacco sickness
- essentially nicotine poisoning
- occurs in contact with with tobacco or sweat
- symptoms: nausea, vomiting, headache, dizziness
Nicotine
- major alkaloid in tobacco
- stored in leaf
- synthesized in root
- derived from aspartic acid
Wilhelm Posselt and Karl Reinmann
- 1828, Germany
- isolated nicotine from the tobacco plant and identified it as a poison
Alkaloid class from nicotine
Pyrrolidine
Physiological Responses to Nicotine
- stimulant, depressant, tranqulizer, narcotic
- analgesic-life effects
Effects of Nicotine in PNS
- low nicotine concentrations: increased bp, increased heart rate, nausea, dizziness, general weakness, muscle relaxant
- high nicotine: convulsions, death by suffocations, paralysis of muscles in respiration
Effects of Nicotine in CNS
suppressions appetite, reduces anxiety, activates dopaminergic reward reward system
Pharmacodynamics of Nicotine
- affects CNS and PNS
- mimics acetylcholine at nAChRs that present throughout the body
- acts as agonist
- desensitizes the receptor
- then acts as an agonist
Secondary Mechanism of Nicotine
may cause release of epinephrine from adrenal glands, norepinephrine and dopamine in the brain
nAChR is a sodium channel
- binding of acetylcholine to the receptor opens the Na channel
- action potential produced is an electrical signal that activated downstream neurons or target organs
- nicotine competes with acetylcholine for binding to the receptor
pharmacokinetics of Nicotine
- smoking tobacco: efficient at drug delivery, 90% of inhaled nicotine has potential to be absorbed, 12mg of nicotine in a cig, 1mg delivered
- toxicity: lethal dose, 60mg
- addiction: 15 cigs/day (7.5-30mg)
- fetal effects: nicotine and other compounds can cross the placenta
Withdrawal symptoms of nicotine
-craving, mood changes, cognitive deficits, sleep disturbance
- increased correlation of depression and smoking
positive reinforcement of nicotine
nicotine causes mood elevation and cognitive enhancement, reward due to stimulation of dopamine limbic system
negative reinforcement of nicotine
anxiety reduction
Treatment of nicotine addiction
- may treat with nicotine replacement (patches, gum, etc.) to try to break with smoking habit first
- treatment with antidepressants
Areca catechu - where and what?
- palm tree cultivated in india, asia and africa
- fruit contains a nut with a single seed and seed coat
- nuts are chewed with lime as ‘Betel’
How does betel act as a stimulant?
- contains pyridine alkaloids (arecoline is most abundant)
- agonist of muscarinic acetylcholine receptors
effects of arecoline
- increased rate and bp
- increases memory and speed of mental processing
- links of chewing to oral cancer
Erythroxylon coca
- native to columbia, ecuador, bolivia, Western Brazil
- small bushy shrub like tree grows in warm moist valleys
- niche occupied by few other plant species
- leaves produce cocaine
Domestication of Erythroxylon coca
- large scale cultivation in Peru, Bolivia, Columbia
- first cultivated in Eastern Andes of Bolivia 7000 years ago
- often grown on mountain terraces called cocales
Historical Coca leaf use
- leaves are highly valued
- used by Andes and Amazon region peoples to allay huger and fatigue
- high vitamin level
- chew dried green leaves with mineral lime (lime for absorption)
Historical use of Coca Leaf
- important to Inca culture in Peru (treated as currency)
- spanish adopt this currency (use leaves to pay native laborers)
Angelo Mariani
- introduced coca plant to European society
- produced a beverage that was a mix of red bordeaux wine and coca leaf extract
- produced in paris
- dispensed by prescription
Celebrity Endorsements of Mariani wine
- Jules Verne
- Pope Leo Xiii
Coca and the USA
- 1880s american pharmacist concocts intellectual beverage based on Vin Mariani
- 1886, prohibition in Atlanta (wine is replaced with sugar syrup)
