Sam Wrote:
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> >
> The idea of a lost species of tobacco came to
> Balabanova because the concentrations in the
> bodies from Asia and Europe were similar to modern
> day smokers.
>
> But one thing had puzzled her. At 35 times the
> dose for smokers, the amounts of nicotine she had
> found in Egyptian mummies were potentially lethal.
>
>
>
>
Sam,
I would not base an argument on what is shown on a TV program. You need to look at what is published in peer reviewed publications. First of all, BA reports her concentrations in a way makes them seem a lot higher than they really are if you don't look at the units. The standards way in which these things are reported is nanograms/
milligram she reports nanograms/
gram. This makes her concentrations appear 1000 times higher.
The first paper is:
Balabanova, S., F. Parsche and W. Pirsig 1992 “First Identification of Drugs in Egyptian Mummies,”
Naturwissenschaften 79: 358
If you correct her units to the usual ones the Egyptian mummies 1070BC-AD395 have a concentration of 0.454 ng/mg in the bones
A second paper is
Balabanova, S., et al. 1993 “Was nicotine known in ancient Egypt?”
Homo 44 (1): 92-94
concentration in bones
Egyptian mummies ---- 0.045-1.05 ng/mg
Sudan mummies------ 0.087-0.093 ng/mg
Bell culture Germany- 0.056-0.142 ng/mg
the third paper is
Balabanova, S., et al. 1995 “First Detection of nicotine in ancient population of southern China,”
Homo 46 (1): 68-75.
China ---- 0.018-0.114 ng/mg in bones
the 4th paper is more comprehensive and the only one that reports bone concentrations for modern smokers
Balabanova, S., et al. 1997 “Nicotine and cotinine in prehistoric and recent bones from Africa and Europe and the origin of these alkaloids,”
Homo 48(1): 72-77
natural Egyptian mummies----- 0.047 ng/mg
artificial Egyptian mummies---1.33 ng/mg
modern smokers------- 0.038 ng/mg
This is the paper, several years after the TV program, where BA did the test she should have done initially and showed that a lot of nicotine was added in the mummification process because artificial mummies have a much higher level of nicotine than mummies that were made naturally. This paper also showed that the modern smokers had metabolized the nicotine while the ancient Egyptian mummies had not and this was the reason why they seemed to have less nicotine than the mummies.
As to the lethality of the concentrations, a better measure of nicotine is concentration in hair from the first paper
Balabanova, S., F. Parsche and W. Pirsig 1992 “First Identification of Drugs in Egyptian Mummies,”
Naturwissenschaften 79: 358
hair concentrations
Egyptian mummies 1070BC-AD395---- 0.30-0.90 ng/mg
modern smokers------- 0.003-20.0
so in reality modern smokers (presumably not dead) have 22 times more nicotine in their hair than BA's ancient Egyptian mummies.
%%%%%%
for comparison measurements by someone else
Cartmell, L.W. and Cheryl Weems 2001 “Overview of Hair analysis: A Report of Hair analysis from Dakleh Oasis, Egypt,”
Chungará (Arica) 33(2): 289-292
Egyptian mummies 0.7-2.1 ng/mg in hair
Bernard