Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2012 Jul;14(7):801-8.
doi: 10.1093/ntr/ntr287. Epub 2012 Feb 6.

Effect of menthol on nicotine pharmacokinetics in rats after cigarette smoke inhalation

Cyril V Abobo  1 , Jing Ma, Dong Liang
Affiliations

Effect of menthol on nicotine pharmacokinetics in rats after cigarette smoke inhalation

Cyril V Abobo et al. Nicotine Tob Res. 2012 Jul.

Abstract

Introduction: The effect of menthol on nicotine disposition is important in understanding smoking behaviors among different racial groups. The present study was to evaluate whether menthol affects the pharmacokinetics of nicotine after cigarette smoke inhalation.

Methods: Rats were exposed to mainstream smoke from either a nonmentholated or mentholated cigarette (1 puff/min for 10 min) using a smoke inhalation apparatus. For the multiple-cigarette smoke inhalation, rats received the smoke from either nonmentholated or mentholated cigarette (10 puffs) every 12 hr for a total of 17 cigarettes. Serial blood samples were collected during the 10-min inhalation phase for the single-cigarette smoke or the 17th cigarette inhalation and for 30 hr thereafter. Nicotine and its major metabolite cotinine were assayed by radioimmunoassay methods.

Results: Following single-cigarette smoke inhalation, mentholated cigarettes significantly decreased the mean peak concentrations of nicotine in plasma (C(max)) from 27.1 to 9.61 ng/ml and the total area under the plasma concentration-time curves (AUC) from 977 to 391 ng min/ml as compared with those after nonmentholated cigarette smoke inhalation. C(max) and AUC values for cotinine were also significantly reduced by menthol. Similarly after multiple smoke inhalation, C(max), AUC, and the mean average steady-state plasma concentration of nicotine as well as cotinine were significantly lower in mentholated cigarette inhalation. Interestingly, there was a significant increase in the cotinine to nicotine AUC ratio from 13.8 for the nonmentholated to 21.1 for the mentholated cigarette.

Conclusions: These results suggest that menthol in mentholated cigarettes can substantially decrease the absorption and/or increase the clearance of nicotine.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Mean (+SD) time course of nicotine and cotinine plasma concentrations (n = 8) after single-cigarette smoke inhalation.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Mean (+SD) time course of nicotine and cotinine plasma concentrations (n = 8) after multiple-cigarette smoke inhalation.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Ahijevych K, Garrett BE. Menthol pharmacology and its potential impact on cigarette smoking behavior. Nicotine & Tobacco Research. 2004;6:S17–S28. doi:10.1080/14622200310001649469. - PubMed
    1. Ahijevych K, Parsley LA. Smoke constituent exposure and stage of change in black and white women cigarette smokers. Addictive Behaviors. 1999;24:115–120. - PubMed
    1. Benowitz NL, Dains KM, Dempsey D, Wilson M, Jacob P. Racial differences in the relationship between number of cigarettes smoked and nicotine and carcinogen exposure. Nicotine & Tobacco Research. 2011;13:772–783. doi:10.1093/ntr/ntr072. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Benowitz NL, Herrera B, Jacob P., III Mentholated cigarette smoking inhibits nicotine metabolism. Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. 2004;310:1208–1215. doi:10.1124/jpet.104.066902. - PubMed
    1. Benowitz NL, Perez-Stable EJ, Fong I, Modin G, Herrera B, Jacob P., III Ethnic differences in N-glucuronidation of nicotine and cotinine. Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. 1999;291:1196–1203. - PubMed

Publication types