The inheritance of nicotine content was investigated by the method of Mather and Jinks (1977), using 3 diallelic crosses of 13 oriental tobacco cultivars. The nicotine content was determined in sun-cured leaves by the Standard Coresta method 2 (1966). The experiments were carried out during the period of 1982-1988. A positive correlation was established between degree of dominance and the absolute values of the parents. The high nicotine content, which is characteristic for cultivars with no clearly expressed type of inheritance, is strongly influenced by the environment. The low nicotine content is dominantly inherited. These data point to the possibility of selecting low nicotine oriental tobacco genotypes using the investigated cultivars.