Plant experts have determined that the center of tobacco origin is located in the Andean zone between Peru and Ecuador. The first crops were to take place between 5,000 and 3,000 years ago. C. When America was colonized, consumption was widespread throughout the continent. Smoking (inhaling and exhaling tobacco smoke) was one of many varieties of consumption in South America. In addition to smoking, snuff was sucked up the nose like snuff or snuff, chewed, eaten, licked, drank, smeared on the body, used in eye drops and used on enemas. It was used in rites such as blowing it on the face of warriors before the fight, spread in fields before planting, offered to the gods, spilled on women before a sexual relationship, and both men and women used it as a narcotic .
Tobacco was used by the Mayas for ritual and religious celebrations, was known to Europeans in 1492 on the occasion of the arrival of Christopher Columbus and his expeditionaries. Other versions taken from Spanish chroniclers suggest that "tobacco" comes from the Castilianization of the place where the plant was discovered, either Tobago, an island of West Indies or the Mexican town of Tabasco. However, the most plausible is that it comes from the Arabic "tabbaq", a name that was applied in Europe from at least the fifteenth century to various medicinal plants. The Mayan variety known as Cikar (smoking), spread throughout the continent thanks to trade. Rodrigo de Jerez and Luis de la Torre, companions of Christopher Columbus, were the first Europeans to know its existence. Rodrigo, on his return to Spain, was imprisoned by the Inquisition accused of witchcraft, since only the devil could give a man the power to draw smoke through his mouth