The Identification of Nicotine in an Ancient Maya Vessel (500 - 900 A.D.)

摘要

GCMS and LCMS analyses of samples extracted from Late Classic Maya Period (600 to 900 AD) codex-style flask provided positive evidence for nicotine, showing that it had contained tobacco. This is the first physical evidence of tobacco from a Maya container, and the second example in which vessel content recorded in a Mayan hieroglyphic text has been confirmed directly by chromatography mass spectrometry trace analysis. High-resolution high mass accuracy MSMS spectra of nicotine and its mono-oxides were re-evaluated; only N-containing ions were detected.