engleski

Tobacco as a biomass crop

Tobacco plant is grown for leaves which are used for smoking because of their nicotine content. Four thousand components have been identified in tobacco and over 6 000 in tobacco smoke which are produced during the combustion of tobacco products. Numerous components of tobacco smoke are harmful to human health. Furthermore, with growing concerns about the health risks of smoking, public support for tobacco research has declined. However, tobacco plants have other potentials besides the production of leaves for smoking, such as the biomass production. Tobacco naturally produces high value proteins in large quantities with nutritional profile comparable or superior to many other protein sources. Tobacco also produces large amount of starches and sugars and about one quarter of tobacco plant is cellulosic material. Tobacco seed contains significant amount of oil (35–49% by weight) and it can be used in biodiesel production. In addition, after the oil is extracted, the remaining part as a cake can be used for animal food. Therefore, tobacco biomass has potential for commercial applications not only in the fields of human food, livestock feed and poultry feed supplements but also in medicine and pharmaceutical. Tobacco production is of great importance in Croatia and it is the dominant cash crop for 2500 farmers. Annual average production of tobacco leaves is 11000 t with total income around 180 000 000 kn. Tobacco is the most labor intensive crop (around 700 hours of human labor per one hectare) and its production employs a large number of people. Advantage of tobacco as a biomass crop is the fact that the farming infrastructure for growing tobacco already exists. Furthermore, tobacco is grown on soil which is not suitable for successful production of food crops and consequently its production doesn’t have negative impact on food production. Considering the above mentioned, tobacco cultivation for non-conventional usage has great prospective. Therefore, there is a need for intensive research financed by public and private sector pursuant to the Croatian and European legislation on genetically modified organisms, and in accordance with the highest environmental standards. In addition, there is a need for comprehensive research of alternative tobacco uses with special attention to create competitive and commercial tobacco products.

tobacco; biomass; alternative uses

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