https://www.simpsonsarchive.com/news/tomacco.html

THE SIMPSONS ARCHIVE                           THE SPRINGFIELD TIMES

Simpson Fan Grows Tomacco

Press Release - October 2003
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To: KPTV 12 News
Subject: Tomacco exists!

I thought you might be interested in the following local story as a
10 O'clock news lead into this season's premier of The Simpsons.

I am a fan of Fox 12's The Simpsons, and episode # 1105 [1] is my
favorite. Homer had exposed a variety of seeds to Plutonium and
Tomacco was the only thing that grew. A foul tasting tomato that made
everyone addicted after one nasty bite. I thought it sounded familiar
and I found a 1968 reprint [2] of a 1959 Scientific American article
where a scientist had grafted tomato tops to tobacco roots and gotten
nicotine in the tomato plant since the tobacco root produces the
nicotine.

I have created live Tomacco here in Lake Oswego. I grew tomato and
tobacco from seed and grafted then together creating a tomato plant
with tobacco roots. The leaves and fruit of the tomato top should
have nicotine in them. I have moved the plant inside. Fruit is now
1.7 inches in diameter.

                             [tomacco1]

How I created Tomacco:

I grew the tomato and tobacco plants side by side and cut both stems
open and wrapped them together. The two plants fused and then I cut
off the tomato root leaving the tomato plant dependent on the tobacco
root for water, nutrients and nicotine!

                             [tomacco2]

I do not plan on tasting Tomacco since the fatal dose of nicotine is
only 50 to 60 milligrams [3].

I did an internet search and found no one else had grown Tomacco yet.
This is yet another connection between Portland and the Simpsons.

The fruit is red now and I plan on getting it tested for nicotine. A
local lab has offered to do the testing for free! I am going to try
to schedule the testing done this Friday, October 24th.

Rob Baur
Lake Oswego, OR

Footnotes:
[1] http://www.thesimpsons.com/episode_guide/1105.htm
[2] Bio-Organic Chemistry 1968 pg. 170 ISBN 0-7167-0974-0
[3] http://www.chemsoc.org/exemplarchem/entries/2002/hook/
nicotine.htm
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