Editing Tobacco (section)

===''Nicotiana''===
{{Main|Nicotiana}}
{{See also|List of tobacco diseases}}
[[File:Nicotine.svg|thumb|[[Nicotine]] is the compound responsible for the addictive nature of tobacco use.]]
[[File:Native American tobacco flower.jpg|thumb|upright|Tobacco (''[[Nicotiana rustica]]'') flower, leaves, and buds]]
Many species of tobacco are in the genus of herbs ''Nicotiana''. It is part of the nightshade [[family (biology)|family]] ([[Solanaceae]]) indigenous to North and South America, Australia, south west Africa, and the [[Oceania|South Pacific]].<ref name="Lewis">{{cite journal|last1=Lewis|first1=Albert|title=Tobacco in New Guinea|journal=The American Anthropologist|date=1931|volume=33|issue=1|pages=134–139|doi=10.1525/aa.1931.33.1.02a00290|doi-access=free}}</ref>

Most nightshades contain varying amounts of [[nicotine]], a powerful [[neurotoxin]] to [[insect]]s. However, tobaccos tend to contain a much higher concentration of nicotine than the others. Unlike many other Solanaceae species, they do not contain [[tropane alkaloid]]s, which are often poisonous to humans and other animals.

Despite containing enough nicotine and other compounds such as [[germacrene]] and [[anabasine]] and other [[piperidine]] alkaloids (varying between species) to deter most [[herbivore]]s,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Panter |first1=KE |last2=Keeler |first2=RF |last3=Bunch |first3=TD |last4=Callan |first4=RJ |year=1990 |title=Congenital skeletal malformations and cleft palate induced in goats by ingestion of Lupinus, Conium and Nicotiana species  |journal=Toxicon |pages=1377–1385 |volume=28 |issue=12 |pmid=2089736|doi=10.1016/0041-0101(90)90154-Y |bibcode=1990Txcn...28.1377P }}</ref> a number of such animals have [[evolution|evolve]]d the ability to feed on ''Nicotiana'' species without being harmed. Nonetheless, tobacco is unpalatable to many species due to its other attributes. For example, although the [[cabbage looper]] is a generalist pest, tobacco's gummosis and trichomes can harm early larvae survival.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Elsey |first1=K. D. |last2=Rabb |first2=R. L. |title=Biology of the Cabbage Looper on Tobacco In North Carolina1 |journal=Journal of Economic Entomology |date=1 December 1967 |volume=60 |issue=6 |pages=1636–1639 |doi=10.1093/jee/60.6.1636 }}</ref> As a result, some tobacco plants (chiefly ''N. glauca'') have become established as [[invasive weed]]s in some places.