Knowledgebase of smokeless tobacco products and their chemicals
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1
Indian Council of Medical Research, India
2
National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research (NICPR), India
Publication date: 2018-03-01
Tob. Induc. Dis. 2018;16(Suppl 1):A594
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KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Background:
Smokeless tobacco (SLT) products vary
in appearance and in their composition of tobacco and non-tobacco chemical
constituents thus differing in the mode of consumption. They may be consumed
orally (chewed, sucked, dipped, held in the mouth, etc.) or nasally resulting
in absorption of nicotine and other chemicals across mucus membranes. It is
estimated that tobacco contains roughly 4,000 chemical constituents which
undergo various chemical changes till the final SLT product is formed. Some of
these are identified as potent carcinogens and are believed to play a crucial
role in causing the negative health effects associated with SLT use.
Methods:
List of chemical compounds present in
various SLT products was extracted by exhaustive searching the peer-reviewed
research articles, IARC monographs, published books and reports using various
combinations of keywords. Chemical composition, pH, moisture and free nicotine
content along with brand-wise and country-wise information of each SLT product
were recorded. Physicochemical properties and target information of SLT
chemicals was extracted from PubChem, ChemSpider and ChEMBL databases.
Results:
All the data related to chemical
composition of different smokeless tobacco products were compiled in a freely
available and user-friendly database. This database contains information
about 173 chemicals present in 161 different SLT products. Information
regarding types of smokeless tobacco products, their trade or brand names and
geographical locations and origin are also provided in this database. It also
contains data related to variation of TNSAs (Tobacco-specific nitrosamines), Nicotine, metals, pH, moisture and
free nicotine content of various SLT products which determines the amount of
nicotine available for absorption.
Conclusions:
This database was developed to
organize the data on SLT chemicals and their related content for better
visualization and retrieval. This is the only one stop, open source, user
friendly database that provides comprehensive information about the chemical composition
of various smokeless tobacco products.