METHOD OF MAKING RECONSTITUTED TOBACCO, AND RECONSTITUTED TOBACCO MADE THEREBY

METHOD OF MAKING RECONSTRUCTED TOBACCO, AND RECONSTITUTED TOBACCO MADE THEREBY Reconstituted tobacco is made from the whole tobacco plant by first separating the woody stalk portion and leaf portion of the plant. The stalk portion is refined, or beaten, apart from the leaf portion to reduce it to pieces which can bond to form a paper-like sheet. The leaf portion is refined to a lesser extent to similarly reduce it. The stalk and leaf portions are combined and formed into a paper-like sheet by a conventional papermaking technique. At least the leaf portion is extracted before refining to separate it into a soluble extract and a fibrous residue, the extract later being introduced into the paper-like sheet. The stalk alone may be refined for a period of time after which the unrefined leaf portion is added to it and the combined stalk and leaf portion then refined together. A part of the stalk portion may be discarded, and conventional non-tobacco papermaking fiber added to the stalk and leaf portions prior to making the paper-like sheet.