Tobacco, which has been used on a small scale as a natural organic pesticide for hundreds of years, is receiving renewed scientific attention as a possible alternative to traditional commercial pesticides.
This is the subject of an article published in the scientific journal Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research.
Researcher Cedric Briens and his colleagues explain that raising concerns about the health risks of tobacco has reduced the demand for it and severely damaged tobacco farmers in several regions of the world. As a result, scientists are looking for new uses for tobacco. One possible use is as a natural pesticide due to the presence of the toxic substance nicotine in the tobacco plant. For hundreds of years, gardeners have been using homemade mixtures of tobacco and water as a natural pesticide to eliminate insects that harm plants. A "green" pesticide industry based on tobacco could provide farmers with additional income, as well as provide environmentally friendly materials to control harmful insects, the scientists note.
The researchers describe an effective method for turning tobacco leaves into pesticides using a process of pyrolysis (chemical decomposition by heat). In this process, the tobacco leaves are heated to a temperature of 482 degrees Celsius in a vacuum to obtain an unrefined material of bio-oil. The scientists tested the tobacco bio-oil against a wide variety of harmful insects, including 11 types of fungi, 4 types of bacteria and the Colorado potato beetle, which is an agricultural pest with increasing resistance to existing pesticides. The tobacco oil killed all the beetles and prevented the development of two types of bacteria and one type of fungus.
Even after removing the nicotine from the oil, the substance remains a very effective pest killer. The oil's ability to inhibit the growth of only some types of microorganisms suggests that tobacco bio-oil has additional value as a more selective pesticide than those used today, the paper notes.
2 תגובות
Where do you get such oil?
Can cigarette tobacco or gigoul tobacco help?
Thanks
Tobacco and nicotine kill people, for a change they can be used for positive purposes.