Abstract: A method for making tobacco provides to use chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) tannin extract or fractions thereof to reduce the tobacco nitrosamines, the chestnut tannin extract or fractions being applied to the tobacco plants on the field, through the soil or directly on the pre-harvested tobacco leaves, or in a tobacco post-harvesting step for manufacturing finished products, thereby, in addition to reducing nitrosamines, the method also increases the antioxidating and antiradical secondary metabolites; the method being applied to all tobacco types, such as flue-cured, air-cured, fire-cured and sun-cured tobacco.