Analysis of the volatile components emitted from cut tobacco processing by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry thermal desorption system

A sensitive and reliable method was developed for the determination of volatile components emitted from cut tobacco processing using thermal desorption (TD) followed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS). In the work, to obtain the optimal sorbent, three commercial sorbents were compared in terms of adsorption efficiency. The carbotrap 349 was found to have the best performance. The desorption conditions were also studied. Validation of the TD-GC–MS method showed good sensibility, linearity and precision. Limits of detection ranges were from 0.20 to 3.6 ng. Calibration curves were obtained by plotting peak area versus concentration and the correlation coefficients relating to linearity were at least 0.9984. The analysis was reproducible, with relative standard deviation (n=8) within 6.5%. The target compound breakthrough examination showed no significant losses when about 1500 ng standards were prepared. In order to evaluate the performance of the analytical method in the volatile constituents of cut tobacco, samples were taken in industrial areas of cut tobacco processing. Recoveries ranged from 85.1% to 110% for all the compounds and good precision had been reached (RSD<13.3). The results proved that TD-GC–MS was a simple, rapid and accurate method for the analysis of volatile compounds emitted from cut tobacco drying step.