The term “tobacco”

The term tobacco includes the tobacco plant, industrial raw materials and means of enjoyment. Individuals include tobacco in industrial plants (flax, cotton, soybean, sugar beet), and others in stimuli (coffee, tea, cocoa). Tobacco is a herbaceous plant in the genus Nicotiana of Solanaceae family. Its most famous representative is Nicotiana tabacum (common tobacco) which is planted around the world in order to collect leaves which are most commonly used for smoking.

The name of the genus Nicotiana is derived from the surname of Jean Nicot, French ambassador who sent tobacco to France in 1560/1561. to be used in medicine. Jean Nicot Villemann sent grinded tobacco leaves in 1560. to the French queen Catherine de Medici as a cure for her migraine.

The plants in the tobacco genus are usually annual or (rarely) perennial herbaceous plants, semi-shrubs or shrubs, with upright trees, with simple and whole leaves. The leaves often contain gland-like hair. Flowers are put together in upper cymose inflorescences, which resemble a cluster of berries or a shield.

The word “tobacco” comes from the name “tobago” or “tabaco” given to the scroll of rolled tobacco leaves by the natives of the Caribbean islands. This word had transferred to other languages through Spanish, whereas the derived Latin name is tabacum.

     The history of tobacco

An old Indian myth says that, in the ancient times, when soil was infertile and people were starving, the Great Spirit had sent a woman from above to save the mankind. As she was traveling through the world, wherever her right hand had touched the ground, potatoes started growing there. And wherever her left hand had touched the ground, corn would grow in that place. When the world became rich and full, she sat to rest for a while. When she stood up, tobacco started growing in the place where she had been sitting.

Experts believe that during the 1st century A.D. the Native Americans started to realize in which ways tobacco could be used – including smoking and chewing, most likely during hallucinogenic rituals.

Between 470 and 630 A.D. the Maya tribe started to spread, by moving along the Mississippi valley. The Toltec, who had established the Middle Aztec Empire, took over the smoking habits of the Maya who had left behind. From this point, two new branches of smokers developed in time. The first were Montezuma’s court members, who mixed tobacco with the remnants of other leaves and smoked pipes during great after-dinner ceremonies. The second branch was represented by other Native Americans who rolled tobacco leaves into solid cigars. The Maya who settled within the Mississippi valley introduced their customs to surrounding tribes. Later, they adjusted tobacco smoking to their religion, believing that their God, the almighty Manitou, presents himself through spreading smoke.

In quest of a new road to Asia, during the landing on the island of Guanahani (San Salvador) in the Caribbean Sea, the natives gave Christopher Columbus some tobacco leaves, which the crew put on a pile around the mast. A few days later, he landed on Cuba and realized what are those leaves used for by seeing the natives carrying glowing coal and a small roll made of those same leaves. Soon afterwards, the seamen brought tobacco with them back to Europe, and therefore people started growing the plant throughout the continent. The main reason for the growth of popularity of tobacco in Europe was its alleged healing characteristics. The Europeans believed that tobacco could heal almost anything, from bad breath to cancer!

During the 17th century tobacco became so popular that it was occasionally used as money. Tobacco literally had the same value as gold. This was also the time when the side effects of tobacco on health started being noticed by several individuals. In 1610 Sir Francis Bacon noticed that abandoning this habit is extremely difficult.

Tobacco was first introduced in Serbia in the beginning of the 17th century by the Turkish conquerors.

     Tobacco hybrids

Three different sorts of tobacco are produced in Serbia. “Virginia” and “Burley” are tobacco sorts with large leaves which bring bigger yield per hectare. Those tobacco sorts are known in tobacco industry as “fillers”. In every cigarette created by mixing various tobacco sorts, “fillers” are the most popular. The sorts which bring specific aromas, the so-called “flavors”, like oriental tobacco sorts, are grown in the south of Serbia.

VIRGINIA: is the champion of quality and most frequently involved in the production process, growing to the height of 120-180 cm, with large leaves (18-20 leaves), light-green. It is dried in special drying places by warm air for 130-140 hours.

BURLEY: has a thick juicy tissue which absorbs sauces properly, growing to the height of 140-180 cm, with outstandingly large leaves, yellowish-green with whitish mid rib of the leaf. It is dried naturally by air in shade, for 20 days.

ORIENTAL: This tobacco sort is abundant in essential resins and oils, which are stationed in the glands of tiny hair at the upper side of the leaf. Top quality leaves of oriental tobacco usually grow within 10 to 14 cm in length and they are found at the top of the habitus (tobacco plant), i.e. the upper insertion. Oriental tobacco sort is grown in aerated low quality soil at around 400 m above sea level. It is almost impossible to imagine the production of oriental cigarettes without aromatic oriental tobacco. The basic characteristic of oriental tobacco in a cigarette is its exquisitely pleasant aromatic note. The highest quality oriental tobacco hybrids are Basma, Jaka and Prilep.

     The history of cigarettes

“Cigarette” comes from a French word meaning “a small cigar”. A cigarette is a product made of pre-processed (refined) and eventually cut tobacco leaves, which are tightly wrapped in a paper roll. Cigarettes are used for smoking, an activity performed by tobacco consumers – smokers.

The word “cigarette” is of Spanish origin, meaning “a small cigar”, whereas the word “cigar” comes from the word ciq, which stands for “combustible” in Maya language. The root of that word, “ci” or “cii” means “pleasant, scented tasty merchandise”. The Maya were the first ever nation known for cigar smoking.

The beginning of cigarette smoking, i.e. its primitive form was firstly recognized during the 16th century. Today, cigarettes are the dominant form of tobacco consumption, and they participate in total consumption of tobacco products in the world with more than 95 per cent.

According to a document, the Spaniards noticed in 1518 that members of some tribes roll crumbled tobacco in various plants’ leaves – banana, sugar cane, and most often – corn, which can be considered as the first primitive form of a cigarette. Even back then, the Indians mixed tobacco with different herbs and aromatic resins in order to improve the aroma. However, the flavor of the smoke was too sharp, tobacco burned quickly; it kept dropping out from the end, into people’s mouths, etc.

In the 17th century, in South and Central America, appeared papelitos, small cigars wrapped in corn and smoked by the Spanish and the Creoles. It is interesting that the Italian adventurer Giacomo Casanova (1725-1798) states in his memoirs that, in Spain, he had met smokers of cigarettes made of Brazilian tobacco rolled in a piece of paper.

The story about the history of creation of modern cigarettes is related to the war between Egypt and Turkey. During the siege of the Acra fortress in Syria in 1832, the commander of the Egyptian army named Ibrahim-pasha sent a large amount of fine oriental tobacco as a gift to a cannon unit. The soldiers smoked that tobacco through the only nargileh they had, until the day when the nargileh was blown off by a Turkish grenade. In order to somehow satisfy their passion for tobacco, the soldiers came up with the idea to roll the tobacco inside paper used for wrapping artillery grenades. The story says that a corporal took that paper, cut it into several pieces and used one of them to roll his tobacco, put it in his mouth – and the cigarette was born, just like many other discoveries – incidentally. The soldiers kept that invention secret for a while, but after managing to conquer the fortress, the pasha forgave their pilfering. After that, other Turkish soldiers started making cigarettes in such a way, along with the Russians who were hired by the sultan to defend Constantinople. During the 40s, the Russians started factory production of such cigarettes made of oriental tobacco. It is known that the first cigarette sale took place after 1843 in France.

In the beginning, it was most common to produce oriental cigarettes, but in time also appeared cigarettes with dark as well as light tobacco. As oriental tobacco was not produced in the United States, but mainly other types, cigarette manufacturers started thinking how to turn those tobacco sorts into acceptable products. After many experiments, in 1913 Reynolds placed in the market a cigarette with a new mixture called “domestic blend”, composed of flue-cured tobacco, burley and oriental, enriched with sweeteners and flavors. The new cigarette was called “Camel”, however the design of the cigarette with a minaret, camel and a pyramid in the background associated to the Orient, i.e. aromatic and high quality tobacco, concerning the fact that, back then, oriental tobacco was the example of best quality. American soldiers contributed to the spreading of blend cigarettes in Europe, although the expansion was relatively slow due to taste-related habits of the smokers and many other restrictions.

     Tobacco and cigarettes in Serbia

Almost all domestic tobacco production is carried out within individual properties, which provides this branch with a specific economic and social importance. Cultivation of tobacco is traditionally present in under-developed regions, especially in the south of Serbia. Although during the last few years the plantation growing of fertile, wide-leaf, high quality tobacco sorts has been taking place in the plains, the production in small, “chipped” parcels is still significant.

According to earlier estimates, around 20,000 households of Serbia were involved in tobacco production, but after major changes in the ownership structure during the privatization process, the number decreased significantly and now the estimate is around 10,000 households.

According to the data given by the Republic Bureau of Statistics, the size of tobacco sown areas in 2008 was 7,129 ha, and the amount of production of all tobacco sorts was 10,839 tons.

The domestic production of tobacco, due to very favorable soil and climate conditions, is characterized by successful cultivation of many various types of tobacco, the most famous being foreign sorts Virginia and Burley, and also domestic ones Jaka, Prilep, Otlja and Dzebel.

The most popular foreign tobacco sort is Virginia which has been involved with 51-53% of total domestic production in recent years, for its way of growing and cultivation is capitally intensive, unlike the domestic sorts of tobacco.

The processing of tobacco has a very long tradition in our country, but the technological level of processing is mostly outdated with already amortized equipment. Of course, there are modern technical – technological capacities for processing wide-leaf sorts of tobacco, whose products reach the necessary quality level required for further finalization and production of tobacco products.

Cigarette production is mostly performed through two large capacities in Nis and Vranje which have been the only ones licensed for this sort of production so far. In 2005, licenses for production of cigarettes and other tobacco products were granted to “Monus” from Zemun and Senta Tobacco Industry.

The production of fermented tobacco in 2008 amounted to 8,896 t, cigarette production 20,756 t, and tobacco foils 1,780 tons.

The export of tobacco and tobacco products has a 2% share of total agricultural and foodstuff export of the Republic, whilst the import share is around 6%.

During the observed period of time in 2008, a significant increase in export by 55.5% was achieved, while 8.8% increase in import was recorded at the same time (compared to the same period of time in 2007).

In 2008, a deficit was recorded in the exchange of tobacco products with the world, in the amount of 43.5 mil. USD, which makes it one of the most significant individual deficits of agriculture and foodstuff industry of Serbia.