Herb in focus: Tāmraparna

Kings prohibited it, Popes pronounced against it and Sultans condemned users to cruel deaths. Three hundred years later, in 1885, it was included in the British Pharmacopoeia. Today it is called by activists as the Evil Weed and lawyers in the US are reaping huge profits while helping those who suffer from the effects of its addictive use and abuse. As a student of Āyurveda and Yoga, one must know this herb in greater detail. After all, “... the use or uselessness depends on the use the user lends[1]”.
Tobacco (Nicotina Tobacum) is a member of the nightshade family (Solanaceae). This family includes food plants (potato, tomato, pepper, and eggplant), poisonous and medicinal plants (deadly nightshade and Jimson weed) and garden plants such as petunia. Medicinally it is used as a sedative, diuretic, expectorant and internally only as an emetic, when all other emetics fail. The smoke injected into the rectum or the leaf rolled into the anus as a suppository has been beneficial in strangulated hernia. A wet leaf applied to piles is a certain cure[2]. Tobacco poultices are used externally in the treatment of rheumatic swelling, skin diseases and scorpion stings[3]. The American Indians have used it historically as a “psychological aid for insanity caused by masturbation and as a remedy for tuberculosis[4]”.
Habitual smokers are known to be able to fine tune their response to everyday life by determining the way they puff. Short puffs arouse the nervous system while deep drags calm it. This fact has often been used to artistically express moods in cinema and theatre. Ash and smoke are often used in poetic metaphor also. In the words of Harry Paul Lonsdale, author of one of the top-selling cigar books, The Good Cigar, “To smoke was to recognize in the ash and in the smoke itself the transitory nature of life, for what was the fate of man but to flare up for a time and then burn out?”
The first reference in Āyurvedic literature occurs in the 17th century text Yogaratnākara. It was a Portuguese import into India during the 16th century. Its properties, uses and actions are described as relieving asthma, cough, edema, Vāta and Kapha vitiation, dental diseases, as a supplement in enema to tone the colon and as a germicidal. Āyurvedic formulations that use tobacco are Shvāsagajānkusha Rasa and Shvāsāntakavalehya.
The active ingredient in tobacco is Nicotine (C10H14N2), an alkaloid (caffeine is another common alkaloid). Nicotine is metabolized in the lungs, kidneys and liver. The liver and kidneys are the sites of Pitta and lungs the site of Kapha and Vāta. The action of nicotine on the three doshas and their respective sites are all too well known – increased heartbeat, increased blood pressure and rapid, shallow breathing. These effects could be of positive help and bring relief to patients suffering from Alzheimer's Disease and Tourette's syndrome if used in a controlled way.
A closer look at the physiology of tobacco usage would help in understanding its effects. In the brain, neurons are the cells that transfer and integrate information. While signals are conducted through individual neurons as electric current, communication between neurons is mediated by chemical messengers called neurotransmitters. Nicotine works by docking to neurotransmitters called acetylcholine. In normal circumstances, acetylcholine delivers signals from the brain to muscles, controls basic functions like our energy level, the beating of our heart and how we breathe. It acts like a "traffic cop" overseeing the flow of information in your brain and plays a vital role in learning and memory. Nicotine causes increased activity of acetylcholine which leads to the effects mentioned above. Nicotine also causes release of glutamate, a neurotransmitter involved in learning and memory. Also it releases endorphins. Endorphins lead to feelings of euphoria and create a memory loop of good feelings and further drive the desire to use nicotine.
Āyurveda explains this in terms of the tobacco’s Vātahara and Kaphahara qualities and its Tikshna and Ushna gunas that vitiate Sādhaka Pitta, Tarpaka Kapha and Prāna and Vyāna Vāyu. The rapid absorption of nicotine by smoking occurs at the alveoli, so Āvalambaka Kapha is also disturbed. It is Āvalambaka Kapha that creates confidence and courage while supporting both the respiratory and cardiovascular systems. Tarpaka Kapha is the “film” on which impressions digested by Sādhaka Pitta are imprinted. The combined effect of these explains the mood elevation and confidence the drag on a cigarette creates for the smoker.
Interestingly, Yoga provides a solution. Practice of āsanas[5] and Prānāyāma[6] regulate the level of acetylcholine, endorphins and other neurotransmitters in the blood. Thus the yoga practitioner can have all the “benefits” of altered level of neurotransmitters without falling prey to the addictive and damaging effects that follow tobacco abuse.
Tobacco had widespread ceremonial and spiritual use amongst Indian shamans in Central and Southern America. Since it has an anti-aphrodisiac effect (shukrahara), reduces hunger and increases pain tolerance levels, it found acceptance amongst wandering ascetics in India too. Some yogis and Tāntriks use tobacco and marijuana in their Tapas to actively “dry out” their bodies, reduce their diets and control Prāna’s movement in order to reduce the production of their physical juices and allocating more resources to the production of Ojas[7].

It is indeed unfortunate that injudicious use of this herb has led to a lot of misery. But that is true of any substance. Overindulgence in even the healthiest of foods can lead to addiction, obesity and death. Yoga and Āyurveda are the science and art of Yukti, a word which encompasses and includes ideas like common sense, pragmatism, union, combination, harnessing, reason, deduction, device and even magic. For that reason the middle path is the best path. Dynamic balance and harmony is the essence of Sattva and that is what the practices lead us to.

Ashok RājGuru.

[1]Caraka Sutrasthana 9/20a
[2] Grieve: A Modern Herbal. Penguin 1984 ISBN 0-14-046-440-9
[3] Chopra. R. N., Nayar. S. L. and Chopra. I. C. Glossary of Indian Medicinal Plants (Including the Supplement). Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi. 1986
[4] http://www.uihealthcare.com /depts/medmuseum/galleryexhibits/naturespharmacy/tobaccoplant/tobacco.html
[5] Criswell, Eleanor (1988). How Yoga Works: An Introduction to Somatic Yoga. California: Freeperson Press
[6]http://www.yogaspirit.co.uk/articles/Yogaandpromotionofhealth
[7] Svoboda, Robert E: Ayurveda, Life, Health and Longevity. Penguin India, 2003.