People who smoke know that it is bad for their health. Many times, they want to quit it as well. They find it a difficult task despite knowing its side effects. For someone, who aspires to take the healthy initiative of quitting smoking, we have an option for them. In Eastern European countries in the 1960s, people who wanted to give up the habit of cigarettes used a plant-based compound called Cytisine. There is, however, no scientific evidence of its benefits related to quitting smoking. It is still used as an alternative to increase the chances of successful smoking cessation. As per the reports, Cytisine is available at a very low cost and therefore, it is used by smokers to get rid of smoking. Reportedly, this low-cost smoking aid has been used at a larger scale only in countries in Central Europe and Eastern Europe. People in these countries, who use Cytisine, hail from the poor and middle-class income group. Besides the citizens living in these countries, no one has been able to use Cytisine.
Cytisine, a plant‐based alkaloid, was first authorised for use as a smoking cessation medication in Bulgaria in 1964. From Bulgaria, the herb is still sold in some countries in Central Europe and Asia. A researcher named Omar de Santi talked about Cytisine in an interview with The Guardian. He had led a study on it and said that Cytisine is an inexpensive and effective stop-smoking aid globally. “Worldwide, smoking is considered the main cause of preventable death. Cytisine has the potential to be one of the big answers to that problem,” he said. Omar de Santi’s study was done on about 6000 smokers and published in the journal Addiction. It pooled the results of eight trials comparing cytisine with placebo.
The research also looked at two randomised controlled trials, comparing Cytisine with nicotine replacement therapy. There were modest results in favour of Cytisine. According to MedlinePlus, Nicotine replacement therapy is a treatment to help people quit smoking. It uses products that supply low doses of nicotine and do not contain the other toxins found in smoke. The goal of therapy is to cut down on cravings for nicotine and ease the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal.
