Abstract

In this study, we compared the pyrolysis products of the three most commonly used tobacco leaves using pyrolysis-gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry detection. For tobacco product regulation, it is important to understand the formation of emissions that occurs during smoking of tobacco. To this purpose, we report a simple analytical method to investigate the combustion process of tobacco leaves using a pyrolysis robot coupled to a GC-MS. This method allows for simulation of the tobacco smoking process, by taking one puff (single puff) and more puffs (puff-by-puff), and subsequent determination of the combustion products. We studied the 13 most abundant emissions formed during the pyrolysis of the three most common tobacco varieties: Burley, Virginia and Oriental. Unlike commercially available tobacco products, the tobacco leaves were not treated with any additives, allowing for an assessment of the combustion product of raw tobacco leaves. Our study shows that tobacco, when combusted, produces predominantly tobacco specific alkaloids such as nicotine, hydrocarbons (toluene, xylene and limonene) and other compounds such as acetaldehyde, phenol and furfural. Nicotine is the main chemical produced during pyrolysis followed by β-nicotyrine, acetaldehyde and toluene. For lower molecular weight components such as acetaldehyde, the amounts generally decreased with puff number. On the other hand, nicotine yields in all three tobacco leaves were found to increase with puff number.

Keywords: Pyrolysis; Tobacco; Cigarette smoke; Pyrobot; Pyroprobe; Puff-by-puff