Do Ecigs Extract Nicotine From Tobacco?

[sirsticks1]

Where do ECig companies get the nicotine for their cartridges and E Juice? Do they synthesize it or extract it from tobacco?

[Wardog72]

Extracted from tobacco would be my best guess.

[mjradik]

Nicotine is not lab produced, though I’m sure it’s possible since it’s just a chemical compound. Remember nicotine is also used in other non-tobacco products, like pesticides/insecticides/ etc, and Pharmaceutical companies buy it for their stop-smoking aids. There is a big market for nicotine (the most used drug in the US). I know tabacoo companies extract the nicotine themselves (they actually make the cigs with nicotine removed/free tobacco leaves, and add the nicotine back in at controlled amounts for quality control), haha, that makes me laugh… making analogs with quality control, haha.

But anyways, I’m sure there are other companies out there that just extract it, purify it, and sell it to companies at it’s pure form of 990mg. Ecig companies, and companies that produce their own liquid, buy this pure nicotine then dilute it with PG or VG making it a less toxic strength. 2-3 drops of pure nicotine will kill you. They make their own juice, or dilute it to less than 100mg and will sell it to the DIY’ers or resellers in bulk for distribution. It would be tough for the average person to buy strength over 100mg. But also remember, 1ml of 60mg nicotine can kill an average non-smoking adult if 100% of it is absorbed at once. For a regular smoker, that strength goes up to 80-120mg because our bodies are used to and like the nicotine.

Edited August 21, 2011 by mjradik

[Christopher]

Most e liquid uses nicotine that is derived and filtered from tobacco, this is my preference personally. American DIY'ers do one of 2 things. Either they order the base nicotine from overseas, (which is derived nicotine) or they purchase synthetic nicotine from the United States.