TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - INORGANIC CHEMISTRY - Preferred Components: In step (B) and process (P2), the base used is sodium hydride. In step (c), the acid used is hydrochloric acid. In step (C), the base used is sodium hydroxide. In step (d), the catalyst used for the hydrogenation is palladium on carbon.    TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - ORGANIC CHEMISTRY - Preferred Process: In step (B), the nicotinic acid ester used is 1-4C alkyl ester of alcohols. In step (C), after treating with acid, the reaction mass is heated to 100 degrees C to effect decarboxylation. Preferred Components: In step (B) and process (P2), the solvent used is dimethylformamide (DMF) or tetrahydrofuran (THF). Preparation (claimed): The process (P2) for preparation of the compound (b) involves: condensing nicotinic acid ester with N-(1-butenyl)-2-pyrrolidone in a solvent using a base. EXAMPLE - A solution of 2-pyrrolidone (50 g), butanal (42.4 g) and P2O5 (2 g) in toluene (300 ml) was refluxed together for 10 hours using Dean-Stark apparatus to collect liberated water. The resulting solution was cooled and washed with 5% solution of sodium bicarbonate and dried over anhydrous sodium sulfate. After removing solvent under reduced pressure, 1-(but-1-enyl) pyrrolidin-2-one was obtained by distillation as liquid. Sodium hydride (8.63 g, 0.36 mol of 60% dispersion in mineral oil) was washed with toluene to remove mineral oil. To this dimethylformamide (DMF) (20 ml), 1-(but-1-enyl) pyrrolidin-2-one (25 g) and solution of methyl nicotinate (20.94 g) in DMF (15 ml) were added. The reaction mixture was heated at 90 degrees C for 2 hours. DMF was partially removed under reduced pressure, and reaction was worked up to give 1-(but-1-enyl)-3-nicotinoyl-pyrrolidin-2-one. A mixture of 1-(but-1-enyl)-3-nicotinoylpyrrolidin-2-one (40 g), water (50 ml) and HCl (85 ml) was refluxed together for 12 hours, and then reaction was worked up to give myosmine. Myosmine (32 g) was dissolved in methanol (150 ml) and hydrogenated at atmospheric pressure with 10% palladium on carbon (1.3 g) as catalyst. After 5 hours mixture was filtered and filtrate was concentrated to get brown solid. It was further purified by vacuum distillation at 0.1 mm Hg to obtain pure nornicotine. To solution of nornicotine (50 g) in water (100 ml) mixture of 37% formaldehyde (49.7 g) and 85% formic acid (37.26 g) were added and stirred at 85 degrees C for 20 hours. The reaction was cooled and pH was adjusted to greater than 13 using NaOH, extracted with dichloromethane, dried over Na2SO4 and solvent was removed completely to get crude oil of (R,S)-nicotine (52.5 g, purity by gas chromatography (GC) = 94.33%). It was further purified by high vacuum distillation at 0.1 mm Hg to obtain colorless (R,S)-nicotine (44.54 g, yield = 81.3, purity by GC = 99.1%).