Introduction: Nicotine is a main water-soluble alkaloid being contained in the tobacco plant (Nicotiana tabacum), which acts as an inducing compound for smoking-dependence. Twelve kinds of nicotine metabolites are known in rats [1]. Among them, cotinine is the major metabolite of nicotine; the half-life (T1/2) of cotinine is much longer (10–20 h) than that of nicotine (24–84 min). The qualitative analysis of cotinine in urine and saliva is being thus carried out as indicators for smoking during its abstinence therapy and for confirming passive smoking. The cases of ingestion of cigarettes or their butts are household accidents taking place very. | Nicotine and cotinine by Mariko Fukumoto Introduction Nicotine is a main water-soluble alkaloid being contained in the tobacco plant Nicotiana taba-cum which acts as an inducing compound for smoking-dependence. Twelve kinds of nicotine metabolites are known in rats 1 . Among them cotinine is the major metabolite of nicotine the half-life T1 2 of cotinine is much longer 10-20 h than that of nicotine 24-84 min . The qualitative analysis of cotinine in urine and saliva is being thus carried out as indicators for smoking during its abstinence therapy and for confirming passive smoking. The cases of ingestion of cigarettes or their butts are household accidents taking place very frequently in Japan. The nicotine contents being contained in a single cigarette are 7-24 mg 2 which is sufficient to kill an infant but thanks to its vomiting-stimulating action or delayed absorption the fatalities due to such accidental ingestion are rare. However after suicidal ingestion of nicotine sulfate solution an insecticide and of cigarette extract solution obtained by boiling many people are being brought to critical care medical centers in such cases they may be fatal without appropriate and early treatments. For analysis of nicotine and cotinine in human blood and or urine methods by GC 3-5 GC MS 6-8 and HPLC 9-13 were reported. In this chapter the methods for GC MS analysis of nicotine and cotinine in blood and for HPLC UV detection analysis of nicotine in tobacco extract solutions are presented. GC MS analysis of nicotine and cotinine in blood and urine Reagents and their preparation Nicotine and cotinine Sigma St. Louis MO USA and other manufacturers are dissolved in the Milli Q water Millipore Bedford MA USA to prepare fixed concentrations of their aqueous solutions. The calibration curves are constructed using human blank sera obtained from healthy nonsmokers various concentrations of nicotine or cotinine are spiked into the blank sera 5-Aminoquinoline internal .
