after cigarettes have been smoked shows that except for the very first minutes when cigarette smoke produces the highest values the curves of the nicotine retention levels are quite comparable comparable levels are reached with nicorette 2 mg but absorption is substantially quicker with the chewing gum of the invention a the inventive recipe allows for total bioavailability of the nicotine incorporated in the gum in fact the measurement data of nicotine in the volunteers 39 blood and saliva were unmistakable evidence of this b the kinetics of nicotine in the volunteers 39 plasma during and after chewing the inventive gum was quite similar to that observed during and after smoking a cigarette see the data as presented in fig2 and 3 particularly interesting is the nicotine peak observed immediately after chewing the inventive gum which correlates well to the effects of smoking a cigarette in fact the initial 34 relaxing 34 effect of smoking is ascribed to this nicotine peak which corresponds to a sudden increase of nicotine levels in the plasma and to consequent vaso dilatation the plasma kinetics of nicotine during and after the chewing of a nicorette gum is completely different because the plasma peak appears later and elimination from the bloodstream takes much longer the inventive chewing gum provides results which are markedly different from those of the prior art with respect to nicotine retention.