so was doing some reading on snus and snus has 3 main ingredients ground tobacco water and salt.
the salt is said to aid the durabilty of the snus.
i read in an old journal that sometimes when fermenting tobacco leaves salt or saltwater is placed on the leaves apprently this allows for heat to be generated aiding in the fermentation process. this brings me to think about the snuff we been discussing here lately.
i wonder if salt would play any role in snuff?

has anyone heard of this method before adding salt or salt water to tobacco to aid in fermentation and curing processes?
in tobacco and shamanism in south america wilbert mentions salt being added to various tobacco preperations, i always thought he meant a base of some sort, but am now thinking he is meaning actual salt, which i spose would be mixed with trona possibly when gathered from the earth? i dont know much about this. maybe we can talk about trona as well.

Trona, hydrated sodium bicarbonate carbonate (Na3HCO3CO3·2H2O), is an evaporite mineral. It is mined as the primary source of sodium carbonate in the United States, where it has replaced the Solvay process used in most of the rest of the world for sodium carbonate production.

Trona is found at Owens Lake and Searles Lake, California; Green River Formation, Utah; and the Nile Valley in Egypt. The trona near Green River, Wyoming is the largest known deposit in the world and lies in layered evaporite deposits from 800 to 1600 feet below ground, where the trona was deposited in a lake during the Paleogene period. Trona has also been mined at Lake Magadi in the Rift Valley in Kenya for nearly 100 years, and occurs in 'salt' pans in the Etosha National Park in Namibia.

The word "trona" comes to English by way of either Swedish (trona) or Spanish (trona), with both possible sources having the same meaning as in English. Both of these derive from the Arabic trōn which in turn derives from the Arabic natron, and Hebrew nun, tet, resh, nun pronounced natrun,which comes from the ancient Greek nitron, derived ultimately from the ancient Egyptian ntry (or nitry).

while we are at it i will write the way i like to cure/ferment tobacco.
leaves are gathered when ready with a slight yellow color.
put in a plastic bag and tied closed with air in it. i put it on the clothes line where it is exposed to the elements of the day mainly to the sun.
the leaves will turn yellow and get a stinky smell after a few days depending on the heat of the days.
every few days replenish the bag with fresh air.
when the leaves are good make sure they dont get stuck in any water collected at the bottom or they go rotten.
but when they are right the leaves can then be air dried.
produces a nice smoke those leaves do.