[Objective] Reconstituted tobacco technology has been one important method to treat and reuse the tobacco waste, in which nicotine control is a key problem to resolve. To realize the flexible control of nicotine, tobacco waste extract (TWE) was selected to screen high activity nicotine degrading strains for potential utilization in reconstituted tobacco process. [Methods] BSM containing nicotine as sole carbon and nitrogen source was used to screen nicotine degrading strains from TWE. Isolated strain identification includes morphology, physiology, and 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. The activity of nicotine degradation of the isolate was evaluated in BSM and TWE respectively. [Results] The isolate Pseudomonas sp. JY-Q showed high degrading activity and tolerance of nicotine both in BSM and TWE. [Conclusion] Pseudomonas sp. JY-Q is a potential strain for nicotine degradation in aqueous environment and TWE. However, coexisting glucose inhibits its activity, which requires further research to resolve.