![]() ![]() As relevant nicotine levels have also been reported in many different spice plants (EFSA 2011), the maximum residue level for nicotine in corresponding commodities was temporarily increased by the Commission to 0.05 mg kg −1 d.w. However, this potential cause was disproved because nicotine was also found in many plant-derived commodities that had been produced under controlled and audited growth conditions. The first and most obvious assumption was that these nicotine levels were still due to nicotine-containing insecticides (Sheen 1988) illegally used after banning. The most striking examples of this report are summarised in Table 1. A compilation is provided by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA 2011). Surprisingly, a large number of plant-derived commodities had nicotine levels above the default MRL, e.g. No maximum residue level (MRL) was set, therefore the default MRL of 0.01 mg kg −1 d.w. However, due to toxicological concerns, the use of all nicotine-containing pesticides has been banned in the EU since 2009 (Commission Decision 2009). Until recently, nicotine was frequently used as an insecticide. Apart from the nutritional aspects, the results on nicotine uptake may also affect basic plant biology, because they demonstrate that alkaloids can be transferred from one plant, after its death, to another plant species. The incorporated nicotine was subsequently metabolised by the plants. These findings demonstrate for the first time that the reported occurrence of nicotine indeed may originate from tobacco. Results show that all the peppermint plants contain minor amounts of nicotine before treatment, but the experiments revealed that the plants also incorporate nicotine considerably from the soil as well as from tobacco smoke. We investigate the uptake of nicotine from nicotine-contaminated soils and tobacco smoke using peppermint plants, Mentha × piperita, as a model system in mulching and fumigation experiments. This study aimed to elucidate the putative sources of nicotine. Recently, nicotine has been detected in a large number of food crops and plant-derived products such as spices and herbal teas, but the origin of this nicotine is unknown. ![]()
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