Tobacco stock Star Scientific (NASDAQ: CIGX) is a company that focuses on smokeless tobacco products. But if Star Scientific has its way, the public could have a very different perception of tobacco — namely, as the plant that cured Alzheimer’s. That could mean big things for tobacco, and even bigger things for Star Scientific stock.

So why haven’t you heard of this development? Well, because the results are preliminary and Star Scientific is burying its study on the potential cure in legalese and confusing press releases. As the pithy investor and journalist James Altucher wrote on Seeking Alpha, the latest press release from Star looked “looks like guys who got their law degree in some outpost of Antarctica wrote it.”

But here are the details: Star  Scientific isolated a compound from nicotine, anatabine, that is a potential Alzheimer’s treatment. After much hype, the 30-year-old neurological research center Roskamp Institute will finally begin human trials with the antabine compound (cleverly named CigRx), and will complete the study after three months.

To temper expectations, this is just the first step in a long process for any approval of an Alzheimer’s treatment. The study at Roskamp will focus on “inflammation,” and the theory appears to be that if chronic inflammation can be controlled or prevented then there is potential to fight the ravages of Alzheimer’s. Many medical experts suspect chronic inflammation is behind not just Alzheimer’s but also cancer and other serious ailments. Then even if the study is conclusive, there is a long process of refinement and further studies before any FDA approval that brings a cure or treatment to the general public.

But this is not just a pipe dream. A Roskamp article indicates that CigRx and antabine have already been linked to lower inflammation on human brain tissue – more so than the much lauded cholesterol maintentance drug Lipitor from Pfizer (NYSE: PFE). Granted, Lipitor is not formulated for neurological health but for cardiac health, but the comparison indicates Star Scientific is moving in the right direction. If inflammation of the brain is, in fact, a big cause of Alzheimer’s symptoms and progression of the illness, then this could prove a crucial first step.

Will the Alzheimer’s “cure” come to fruition? That’s still a big unknown. But in November the CEO of Star, Jonnie Williams, purchased a massive 717,220 shares of his own stock at a little under $2 a share. In the last six months, insiders have bought 4.13 million shares of Star Scientific. That seems to indicate that the company has a lot of faith in its own leadership and product pipeline.

Jeff Reeves is editor of InvestorPlace.com. As of this writing, he did not own a position in any of the stocks named here. Follow him on Twitter via @JeffReevesIP and become a fan of InvestorPlace on Facebook.