The inorganic anions chloride, nitrate, sulfate, phosphate and the organic acids : malic acid, oxalic acid and citric acid were separated on a high performance anion column. As mobile phase a gradient of sodium hydroxide was used. The detection of the anions was done with suppressed conductivity detection. For the detection of nitrate also UV detection at 214 nm was used. For some samples the nitrate determination by HPLC was compared with the nitrate determination by means of a photometric method using 3,4 dimethyl phenol as reagent. Samples used in this investigation were single grade Oriental, Burley and Virginia tobaccos. The nitrate content of the Burley tobaccos analyzed, was very variable : between 1.1% and 4.4%. The nitrate content of the flue-cured samples was low 0.1% - 0.3%, except for 2 samples with 1.2% nitrate. The malic acid content varied between 3.5% and 11.3%. The oxalic acid content was rather constant 0.2%. The citric acid content was in Burley tobaccos much higher than in flue-cured.