PESHAWAR: A research study on biochemical composition of Naswar (moist snuf) has found an array of harmful substances like nicotine, heavy metals, and aflatoxin constituents with proven toxic and carcinogenic potential.
On basis of finding of these injurious contents, the study has recommended an urgent need to enact and implement Smoke Less Tobacco Control policies to curb its use in Pakistan.
The study was conducted with the support of Research, Innovation and Commercialization (ORIC), Khyber Medical University (KMU) and Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR).
According to Dr Shahzad, Supervisor of the study, the research has been carried out in all seven divisions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa including Peshawar, Mardan, Hazara, Kohat, DI Khan, Bannu, and Malakand.
A total of 14 most-sold brands of Naswar, two from each division were collected using a purposive sampling technique. The objective of the study was to investigate the constituents of the most commonly consumed brands, he added.
Smokeless tobacco (ST) use is a growing public health concern with an estimated 360 million users across the globe of which, more than 90 % live in the South Asian region.
In Pakistan an estimated 8% of the population uses different ST products including Paan, Gutka and Naswar. However, Naswar use is mostly common among the ethnic Pashtun population of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, wherein around 15 % of the general population uses it.
According to a study, in Peshawar around 60 % of the total tobacco users consume Naswar. The researchers while using GC–MS analysis identified 85 different chemical compounds in Naswar samples. Nicotine was the most common constituent present in all samples.
Depending on the extraction solvent, the highest area% of nicotine was 97 % in the N-Hexane extract while the lowest area% (26.1 %) was found in the ethanolic extract. Of all the compounds isolated in Naswar samples, 23 are classified as hazardous and harmful to humans. The majority of the hazardous and toxic constituents were from carboxylic (cotinine, norcotinine, 1,3-Diethylurea) and polyaromatic group of compounds (benzoic acid, 2-ethylhexyl ester, Benzene, 4-ethyl-1,2-dimethyl-). Urea, N, N-diethyl- was the major hazardous compound frequently reported in eight samples ranging from (1.64–9.78 %), the study divulged.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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