Science and Education Publishing World Journal of Chemical Education 2375-1657 4 3 2016 6 30 Nicotine and Colored Complexes 67 72 EN Giorgio Volpi Department of Chemistry, University of Turin, Via P. Giuria 7, 10125 Turin, Italy WJCE2016434 10.12691/wjce-4-3-4 2016 3 24 2016 4 12 2016 6 28 An activity for nicotine extraction and detection in tobacco. The procedure is based on the extraction of nicotine from tobacco, followed by the reaction between nicotine with Co(II) and Cu(II) ions. A qualitative experiment is proposed in order to demonstrate and visualize the presence of nicotine in tobacco and to demonstrate metal-nicotine complexes formation and their mass spectrometry (ESI) analysis.