I was wondering how one would go about testing samples of different cigarette tobaccos for their nicotine content. Is there a kit of some kind available online to do this?
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$\begingroup$ A cursory search didn't reveal anything along the lines of a "home kit," but check out this commercial product and accompanying brochure for details pertaining to an industrially-market analysis tool suite. $\endgroup$– Todd MinehardtCommented Apr 25, 2017 at 19:42
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$\begingroup$ You could do a bio-assay. Nicotine is a poison to insects. $\endgroup$– Karsten ♦Commented May 1, 2020 at 15:27
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Unfortunately, nicotine analysis is prohibitively complicated and expensive for a home kit. The presence of other alkaloids similar to nicotine pretty much necessitates that somewhat expensive equipment (i.e. a gas chromatograph) is used to first separate out the nicotine prior to analysis (typically by mass spectroscopy).
The only practical means for a layperson to test tobacco products for nicotine content is to out-source the work to a GC-MS equipped laboratory that routinely performs such analysis.
