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Scientists turn tobacco into medicines

upi.com — Italian scientists say they've used genetically modified tobacco plants to produce medicines for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, including diabetes.

Who dugg this? Made popular Mar 19, 2009

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  • Burento, on 03/19/2009, -2/+11Whoa... so now Tobacco might be good for us... This is the raw egg thing all over again.
  • WHUFCIrons2, on 03/19/2009, -1/+7Native Americans were using Tobacco as a healing plant for cuts/bruises long before. I don't think it was ever intended to smoke with, but people find stranger things to inhale/ingest.
  • divinediva, on 03/19/2009, -0/+6Transgenic plants are attractive systems for the production of therapeutic proteins.
  • diggtochina, on 03/19/2009, -0/+5Tastes like grandma
  • inactive, on 03/19/2009, -0/+4It could be the tobacco plant was used because of Big Tobacco. The plant is more well researched than any other plant in the world. Cigarettes have been such a lucrative business over the years that companies put tons of research into studying them including mapping their genome. It was no mistake that the Tobacco Mosaic Virus was the first virus to be seen under an Electron Microscope.
  • donnikhan, on 03/19/2009, -2/+6"Hey man, can I bum a Tylenol Menthol Light?"



  • OwdenBowden, on 03/19/2009, -0/+4He's up to 6 shots a day.
  • inactive, on 03/19/2009, -0/+4I did a thesis on the medicinal benefits of Tobacco in school

    But smoking dry pesticide tobacco leaves every day for years when there is empirical proof it causes lung cancer is not a "benefit" so I don't know how this article will be interpreted by the stupid.

  • inactive, on 03/19/2009, -0/+4Now that tobacco has been grown that is shown to have medical benefit maybe we could get tobacco re-legalized in California ;-)
  • gdog05, on 03/19/2009, -0/+3I heard about this on NPR months ago. Is there something new to the procedure I'm missing?
  • PopcornDave, on 03/19/2009, -0/+3That's easy to answer. They'll see the word tobacco and immediately call to ban it without bothering to read the article or consider that the plant might have some beneficial use beyond being dried and made in to cigarettes.
  • pacman122, on 03/19/2009, -2/+5That is awesome, now maybe those annoying truth ads will finally stop.
  • steger, on 03/19/2009, -0/+3As a person diagnosed with Crohns disease, any news about suppressing it or a possible cure is good news.
  • soil, on 03/19/2009, -0/+3Robinson Crusoe certainly agreed.
  • infinitus64, on 03/19/2009, -0/+3Legalize it.
  • soil, on 03/19/2009, -0/+2Revive it with fire!
  • MattB123, on 03/19/2009, -2/+4Tastes like... BURNING. I want more!
  • mborys88, on 03/19/2009, -3/+5Yeah....it cures life by inducing death slowly over time.
  • BabyWookie, on 03/19/2009, -0/+2Ignoramus.
  • mborys88, on 03/19/2009, -0/+2Too late...it already is.
  • JCEEZ, on 03/19/2009, -0/+2smoking a pack a day, with tar and all that stuff is bad tho, mmmkkkaaay
  • voodoosteve84, on 03/19/2009, -2/+3Try another plant, *****
  • mborys88, on 03/19/2009, -1/+2Some how I think Philip&Morris funded this.
  • Amadeus2490, on 03/21/2009, -0/+1sonicwill→dugg down
  • docbob84, on 03/20/2009, -0/+1The meds the article is talking about wouldn't be smoked. The plant would produce the molecules or proteins that make up the drug, and would be purified from the plant. We do the same thing with bacteria and yeast now; most insulin used now is "recombinant" or made from human genes stuck into yeast cells. Plants would be even better because they process proteins more like humans and mammals than the yeast do.
  • Amadeus2490, on 03/21/2009, -0/+1And we can make medicine out of them, too.
  • diggtochina, on 03/19/2009, -3/+4tomacco in pill form
  • sonicwill, on 03/19/2009, -1/+1tobacco→medicin
    opium→morphine
  • ajwinder, on 03/19/2009, -4/+4Tobacco has been used for years to alleviate the effects of dealing with ***** and as a repellant of ultra-leftwing crazies.
  • Enterres, on 03/19/2009, -2/+2I've found even smoking pure tobacco can be really uplifting after having spiritual conversations, especially. The difficulty of having a lucid discussion on this matter is preventative enough to ensure i never get addicted.
    It's no surprise to me that it has as yet undiscovered medicinal properties.
    Cigarettes, however, should be outlawed.
  • SCELF, on 07/13/2009, -0/+0New discoveries are awesome!!!!
  • aadautech, on 11/06/2009, -0/+0Tobacco causes 87 percent of lung cancer deaths and has been strongly linked to cancers of the esophagus, bladder, pancreas, stomach, colon, cervix, liver, and kidney. If current patterns continue, 25 million Americans alive today, including 5 million children, will die prematurely from smoking related diseases.

    http://blog.aadautech.com/
  • inactive, on 03/19/2009, -4/+3These medicines will never be studied because the big tobacco will process the leaves and sell them as smokes.... nothing to see here
  • elperegrino, on 03/19/2009, -7/+5tobacco IS medicine
  • ddogfilm, on 03/19/2009, -6/+3thats so awesome. another reason to continue smokin

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