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CORESTA Meeting, Smoke Science/Product Technology, 2019, Hamburg, ST 46

Analysis of aroma components in oral fluids of cigarette smokers

FEI Ting; BI Yanjiu; LIANG Demin; QI Dawei; TAO Liqi; YU Jie; WU Da; LIU Baizhan
Technology Center, Shanghai Tobacco Group Co., Ltd., Shanghai, P.R. China

The sensory quality of cigarettes depends on the effects of chemical components in the mainstream smoke on the consumer’s sensory organs. To provide a reference for cigarette quality assessment, a method for analysing aroma components in the oral fluids of cigarette smokers was established based on solid phase extraction and heart-cutting two-dimensional gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. After smoking, smokers used a small amount of purified water to rinse their oral cavities, and their oral fluids was collected as experimental samples. The sample pretreatment conditions of solid phase extraction (SPE) were optimized. The established method featured good repeatability (the relative standard deviations ranged from 1.51 % to 6.98 %) and was applied to analyse the aroma components in oral fluids collected from smokers of different types of cigarettes (including Chinese Virginia type, modified Virginia type and blended type). The results showed that the aroma components in the oral fluids of smokers of different types of cigarettes were significantly different, and the major differential components were phenols, caramelization products, Maillard reaction products, etc.; which might be related to the differences of cut tobacco structure between cigarettes of different types. The types and contents of aroma components differed significantly between mainstream cigarette smoke and the oral fluids of cigarette smokers. The distribution ratio of each compound was different in mainstream cigarette smoke and oral fluids, namely the contributions of different compounds to the oral senses of consumers were different. In general, compounds like pyridines, pyrrolidines, pyrazines, cyclopentenones, furfurals and phenols were more likely to be retained in oral fluids. In conclusion, the aroma components in the oral fluids of smokers could reflect their oral sensations more intuitively and might provide a reference for the improvement of cigarette quality.