Nicotine

By

Billie Pascual

This chemical compound can be found in roots, seeds, and leaves of the tobacco plant. It has a very bitter and hot taste, and can be synthetically manufactured. Nicotine is found in tobacco in percentages between 2 and 7 percent.

This compound is very poisonous and ingesting even the smallest amount can cause extreme fatigue, vomiting, a rapid yet weak pulse, and possibly nervous breakdowns, even death. Nicotine does not always affect people in the same way. In fact, it has very different effects on everyone. Some people can be harmed in the most drastic measures, whereas others are hardly even affected at all. Obviously, physicians constantly advise people not to ingest any amounts of nicotine into their systems. People with heart problems or other illnesses can be adversely affected by the use of nicotine.

Nicotine is also a general vasoconstrictor, which can cause the diameter of blood vessels to decrease. When this happens, the flow of blood is decreased, and the result is that the person becomes weaker, and if the decrease is prolonged, the blood may actually begin to stop flowing. If this happens, worse things can happen, such as arteriosclerosis. This is a condition in which the walls of arteries become hard. Nicotine is very addicting, which explains why smokers are constantly smoking. They become addicted to the nicotine, and often feel the urge to smoke whenever they can. When a person smokes often enough, their blood pressure tends to rise rapidly because they need more blood flow. Knowing what nicotine does to the vessels and arteries, this is what causes the rate of blood pressure to rise. Nicotine ingestion can even cause severe indigestion, nausea, and even serious heart disturbances.

Although nicotine is very dangerous to people, it can actually do some good. Some physicians use nicotine to treat patients with strychnine poisoning, and tetanus. It can also be used as an effective insecticide.

The mole, as it is defined in Chemistry: The Study of Matter, is "the quantity of a substance that has a mass in grams numerically equal to its molecular mass, which contains Avogadro's number of molecules". The number 6.02 x 10^23 is known as Avogadro's number. This number is named after the famous Italian scientist, Amedeo Avogadro. Throughout his work as a scientist, Avogadro's work eventually led to the determination of this number. Avogadro's number is extremely large due to the fact that the masses of atoms are extremely small.

We can relate the term mole to the word dozen. A dozen refers to 12 of anything such as houses, toys, magazines, or atoms. The mole can refer to 6.02 x 10^23 hats, boxes, cars, or anything else. When the term mole is used synonymously with gaseous elements, much confusion can occur. If someone speaks of a mole of water, it is automatically understood that he or she is speaking of a mole of water molecules. On the other hand, if he or she refers to a mole of oxygen, the definition then becomes distorted. It can be understood as a mole of oxygen atoms, or as a mole of oxygen molecules.

In conclusion, we know that one mole is equal to 6.02 x 10^23. This one mole of nicotine serves as a deteriorating factor to an individual's health. It can also treat various diseases such as tetanus as well as poisons.