50 free Nicotine trivia questions with answers — science & nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Nicotine is one of the most-used drugs on Earth, and one of the most misunderstood. This nicotine trivia quiz covers the science and the story: the German chemists who first isolated it in 1828, the French ambassador it was named after, how it reaches the brain in seconds, why it is a stimulant at low doses and a sedative at high ones, and how much of it hides in a cigarette, a tomato or a bottle of vape liquid. The questions also cover the products and the rules: nicotine gum, patches and varenicline, snus and nicotine pouches, e-cigarettes from Herbert Gilbert's 1963 patent to Hon Lik, and nicotine's long career as an insecticide that gave rise to the neonicotinoids and their bee problem. Difficulty runs from easy (which plant family tobacco belongs to) to expert (which cytochrome P450 enzyme does most of the metabolising). Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on nicotine, tobacco, nicotine replacement therapy and related topics, and each question links to its source. It suits science students, pub quizzers and anyone who has ever tried to quit. Try our Caffeine and Human Body quizzes next.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Nicotine is an alkaloid found mainly in which group of plants?
Nightshades
Trace amounts also occur in tomatoes, potatoes and eggplants, which are all nightshades.
Q 02Roughly what share of a tobacco leaf's dry weight is nicotine?
0.6-3.0%
Nicotiana rustica is far stronger than common tobacco, reaching 2-14%.
Q 03What colour is pure nicotine?
Colourless to yellowish
It is an oily liquid that readily passes through biological membranes.
Q 04What is nicotine's biological job in the tobacco plant?
An anti-herbivore toxin
It is made in the roots and shipped up to the leaves; a tomato top grafted onto tobacco roots is unharmed by it.
Q 05Which specialist caterpillar has evolved to feed on Nicotiana plants despite the nicotine?
The tobacco hornworm
Manduca sexta can detoxify and even repurpose the alkaloid.
Q 06About how much nicotine does an average cigarette deliver to the smoker?
2 mg
That dose is enough to reinforce dependence while staying far below toxic levels.
Q 07Nicotine works by activating which type of receptor?
Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors
The receptor was actually named after nicotine, because the drug was used to characterise it.
Q 08How quickly does inhaled nicotine reach the brain?
10-20 seconds
That speed is a big part of why smoking is so much more addictive than a patch.
Q 09What is the elimination half-life of nicotine in the body?
Around two hours
Its main metabolite hangs around for 18-20 hours, which is why tests look for that instead.
Q 10Which nicotine metabolite, with a half-life of 18-20 hours, is used to test for tobacco exposure?
Cotinine
Menthol slows the conversion of nicotine to this metabolite, lengthening nicotine's half-life.
Q 11Which liver enzyme does most of the work of metabolising nicotine?
CYP2A6
CYP2B6 and FMO3 also contribute.
Q 12Nicotine's shift from stimulant to sedative as the dose rises is known as what?
Nesbitt's paradox
The doctor who first described the effect did so in 1969.
Q 13Which nicotinic receptor subtype has nicotine's highest binding affinity and mediates its addictiveness?
α4β2
At the α9 and α10 subunits nicotine is actually an antagonist, which produces mild pain relief.
Q 14Nicotine's release of which neurotransmitter in the mesolimbic pathway drives its reinforcing effect?
Q 21The first human study of a transdermal nicotine patch was published in what year?
1984
Jed Rose, Murray Jarvik and Daniel Rose wrote it; a follow-up showed the patch cut cigarette cravings.
Q 22Nicotine gum is contraindicated for people with disease of which part of the body?
The temporomandibular joint
Nasal-spray users with chronic nasal disorders also need extra care.
Q 23The quit-smoking drug varenicline was developed from analogues of which plant alkaloid?
Cytisine
Cytisus plants were smoked as a tobacco substitute during World War II, leading to their use as a cessation aid in eastern Europe.
Dopamine
The reinforcing effect usually happens without euphoria, though some users feel a mild high.
Q 15Which of nicotine's two mirror-image forms is the far more potent one found in tobacco?
The (S)-enantiomer
It is 4-28 times more potent than its mirror image in receptor assays.
Q 16Is nicotine itself classified as a carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer?
No
It can, however, form carcinogenic tobacco-specific nitrosamines during curing and processing.
Q 17Nicotine withdrawal symptoms typically peak within what period?
One to three days
They can persist for several weeks, but unlike some drugs there is no six-month withdrawal state.
Q 18A 2018 Cochrane review found nicotine replacement therapy raises the chance of quitting by how much?
50-60%
Combining a patch with a faster-acting form such as gum or spray improves the odds further.
Q 19In what decade were nicotine replacement products first approved in the United States?
The 1980s
They are now on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines.
Q 20Nicotine gum is commonly sold in which two strengths?
2 mg and 4 mg
Smokers who light up within 30 minutes of waking are steered to the stronger one.
Q 24Under what brand name is varenicline sold in the United States?
Chantix
It is a partial agonist at nicotinic receptors, so it takes the edge off cravings without nicotine's full kick.
Q 25Nicotine is named after Nicotiana tabacum, which in turn honours a French ambassador to which country?
Portugal
Jean Nicot sent tobacco and seeds to Paris in 1560 and promoted them as medicine.
Q 26Besides tobacco, Jean Nicot is remembered for compiling one of the first of what?
French dictionaries
His Thresor de la langue françoyse was published in 1606, two years after his death.
Q 27Smoking tobacco was believed in 16th-century Europe to protect against which disease in particular?
The plague
Spanish explorers had brought the "holy herb" to Europe by the early 1530s.
Q 28Which two German chemists first isolated nicotine from tobacco in 1828?
Posselt and Reimann
They believed the substance was a poison; its structure was worked out in 1893.
Q 29In what year was nicotine first synthesised in a laboratory?
1904
Amé Pictet and A. Rotschy did it, though lab synthesis stayed too expensive to compete with tobacco extraction for a century.
Q 30Whose introduction of tobacco in 1612 rescued Jamestown, Virginia from economic collapse?
John Rolfe
By 1619 the colony was shipping more than 20,000 pounds of tobacco.