Q 01/05

Nicotine is an alkaloid found mainly in which group of plants?

A) Sunflowers

B) Nightshades

C) Buttercups

D) Grasses

Answer · why

B) Nightshades

Nightshades are a family of chemical specialists: tobacco's relatives include deadly nightshade, which yields atropine, yet the same family also gives...

Q 02/05

Besides tobacco, which common salad ingredient naturally contains trace amounts of nicotine?

A) Carrot

B) Celery

C) Lettuce

D) Tomato

Answer · why

D) Tomato

Tomato plants are close cousins of tobacco, so they make a little nicotine too. The dose is tiny: a kilogram of fresh tomatoes holds only a few millio...

Q 03/05

What colour is pure nicotine?

A) Deep reddish brown

B) Opaque milky white

C) Colourless to yellowish

D) Bright emerald green

Answer · why

C) Colourless to yellowish

It is an oily liquid that readily passes through biological membranes.

Q 04/05

Tobacco leaves are loaded with nicotine, but in which part of the plant is it actually made?

A) The flowers

B) The roots

C) The seeds

D) The stem

Answer · why

B) The roots

The roots make it and the sap carries it up to the leaves. Graft another plant's shoot onto tobacco roots and its leaves fill with nicotine, while a t...

Q 05/05

Smokers are markedly less likely to develop which brain disease, a puzzle some researchers credit to nicotine?

A) Alzheimer's disease

B) Multiple sclerosis

C) Parkinson's disease

D) Stroke

Answer · why

C) Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease is rarer among smokers, and nicotine may shield the brain cells it destroys. A rival view is that people in its earliest, hidden s...