(±)-Nicotine-d3 is intended for use as an internal standard for the quantification of (±)-nicotine by GC- or LC-mass spectrometry. (±)-Nicotine is the racemic mixture of the dominant alkaloid found in tobacco plants. It acts as an agonist at neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs; Kis = 481 and 11.1 nM for α3β4 and α4β2 subtypes, respectively) and possesses addictive and teratogenic properties. (?)-(S)-Nicotine is significantly more active at binding nAChRs compared to the (+)-(R) antipode, thus nicotine is typically synthesized as (?)-(S)-nicotine with only 0.2-1% of the (+)-(R) isomer present.
