New Plant-Based Drug Could Help People Quit Vaping

A plant-based medication called cytisinicline may be the first effective treatment to help the more than 5 million Americans who want to quit vaping but have had trouble doing so. The news comes from the results of a double-blind, randomized clinical trial co-led by Massachusetts General Hospital. The findings were published in JAMA Internal Medicine on Monday. Smoking Cessation Drug Also Works for Vaping Cytisinicline (historically known as cytisine) has been used for decades in Europe for smoking cessation but has only recently been studied in the United States. The drug is derived from an alkaloid that can be extracted from many plant species, particularly Laburnum seeds. Laburnum is a yellow-flowered tree that grows in Europe. Cytisinicline is a partial agonist on the receptors that play a role in nicotine dependence. As it enters the bloodstream, the drug blocks the neural pathways involving the receptor enough to control a person’s urge to smoke....