Nicotine Research Paper
The Chemical Effects of Nicotine on the Central Nervous System and the Adrenal Medulla
An Australian Health Survey conducted in 2011-2012 concluded that 3.1 million Australians are current smokers. (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2013). This means that 14% of Australia’s population are current smokers compared to more than 40% in the 1980’s – a dramatic decrease with the smoking rate continuing to decline each year. Now there are many factors that can be considered for this drop such as the rise in prices or maybe less accessibility but another big factor is that it’s no longer seen in the same way socially like it was back in the 1980’s. With more and more anti-smoking products being created it decreases the amount of smokers and I’m …show more content…
What makes cigarettes so addictive? Well, I’m glad to tell you that’s why I am here today to explain and teach you about for the first half of this presentation. Cigarettes contain over 599 additives; one of those being Nicotine. Nicotine, also known in our chemistry world as 3-[(2S)-1-methylpyrrolidin-2-yl]pyridine – but you don’t have to concern yourself with that name – is the major additive in cigarettes responsible for their addictive qualities. Now if I say so myself, Nicotine is good at its job considering that there is typically only 1mg of Nicotine absorbed into the body per cigarette. Now Nicotine is a dangerous addicting drug because it has both psychological and physical addicting qualities, similar to heroin and cocaine, which makes the addiction that much harder to …show more content…
Now this isn’t a normal benzene ring as a carbon to hydrogen bond has been replaced with a nitrogen. The chemical formula now becomes C5H5N. This has a huge impact on the polarity of this section. I’m just going to draw up the electronegativity values of the atoms we’re concerned with. So carbon has a value of 2.55, hydrogen with 2.2 and nitrogen with 3.04. Carbon to hydrogen bonds are nonpolar because the electronegativity difference is 0.35 when 2.55 is taken away from 2.2. A carbon to nitrogen bond highly favours nitrogen that is polar because of its electronegativity value. Therefore, it can be concluded that this half of the molecule is polar. The next section again has a carbon to nitrogen bond that is polar. However, it has three nonpolar sections around it. Carbon to carbon bonds are nonpolar because there is a 0 difference in electronegativty. Carbon to hydrogen are nonpolar as explained before. Therefore, it can be concluded that this half of the molecule is nonpolar.
It’s not like Nicotine needs any further help passing through the blood-brain barrier because of its polarity but it also has very small molecules that enable the molecules to more easily enter the blood-brain barrier. Once through the blood-brain barrier, Nicotine binds with the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors.
Now, nicotinic agonist’s can either be α4β2 or α7 receptor agonists. Nicotine is a α4β2 receptor agonist. What does this mean? Well as seen in this diagram,
An Australian Health Survey conducted in 2011-2012 concluded that 3.1 million Australians are current smokers. (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2013). This means that 14% of Australia’s population are current smokers compared to more than 40% in the 1980’s – a dramatic decrease with the smoking rate continuing to decline each year. Now there are many factors that can be considered for this drop such as the rise in prices or maybe less accessibility but another big factor is that it’s no longer seen in the same way socially like it was back in the 1980’s. With more and more anti-smoking products being created it decreases the amount of smokers and I’m …show more content…
What makes cigarettes so addictive? Well, I’m glad to tell you that’s why I am here today to explain and teach you about for the first half of this presentation. Cigarettes contain over 599 additives; one of those being Nicotine. Nicotine, also known in our chemistry world as 3-[(2S)-1-methylpyrrolidin-2-yl]pyridine – but you don’t have to concern yourself with that name – is the major additive in cigarettes responsible for their addictive qualities. Now if I say so myself, Nicotine is good at its job considering that there is typically only 1mg of Nicotine absorbed into the body per cigarette. Now Nicotine is a dangerous addicting drug because it has both psychological and physical addicting qualities, similar to heroin and cocaine, which makes the addiction that much harder to …show more content…
Now this isn’t a normal benzene ring as a carbon to hydrogen bond has been replaced with a nitrogen. The chemical formula now becomes C5H5N. This has a huge impact on the polarity of this section. I’m just going to draw up the electronegativity values of the atoms we’re concerned with. So carbon has a value of 2.55, hydrogen with 2.2 and nitrogen with 3.04. Carbon to hydrogen bonds are nonpolar because the electronegativity difference is 0.35 when 2.55 is taken away from 2.2. A carbon to nitrogen bond highly favours nitrogen that is polar because of its electronegativity value. Therefore, it can be concluded that this half of the molecule is polar. The next section again has a carbon to nitrogen bond that is polar. However, it has three nonpolar sections around it. Carbon to carbon bonds are nonpolar because there is a 0 difference in electronegativty. Carbon to hydrogen are nonpolar as explained before. Therefore, it can be concluded that this half of the molecule is nonpolar.
It’s not like Nicotine needs any further help passing through the blood-brain barrier because of its polarity but it also has very small molecules that enable the molecules to more easily enter the blood-brain barrier. Once through the blood-brain barrier, Nicotine binds with the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors.
Now, nicotinic agonist’s can either be α4β2 or α7 receptor agonists. Nicotine is a α4β2 receptor agonist. What does this mean? Well as seen in this diagram,