Study on the relationship between chemical composition and sensory quality of heated cigarettes based on non-flue-cured tobacco
In order to study the relationship between the chemical composition of tobacco leaves of non-flue-cured tobacco varieties and the sensory quality of heated cigarettes made from them,the conventional chemical composi-tion of four types of non-flue-cured tobacco leaf samples such as oriental tobacco,air/sun-cured tobacco,burley tobacco and cigar tobacco samples were detected.Volatile metabolite profiles were analyzed by metabolomic tech-nique,the differential volatile metabolites in different tobacco leaves were screened by orthogonal partial least square discriminant analysis,and the correlation between them and sensory quality of heated tobacco leaves was analyzed.The results showed that the contents of total sugar and reducing sugar were higher in oriental tobacco leaves,and the contents of alkaloid and nitrogen were higher in burley tobacco,air/sun-cured tobacco and cigar tobacco leaves.The characteristics of volatile metabolites of burley tobacco,air/sun-cured tobacco and cigar tobacco were similar,but different from those of oriental tobacco.A total of 130 differential volatile metabolites were obtained from different tobacco types,mainly esters,ketones,heterocycles and terpenoids.The differential volatile metabolites were positively correlated with the attributes of the smoothness of smoke,irritancy,dry sensa-tion and cleanliness,and negatively correlated with the attributes of unpleasant odor and strength.The results pro-vide a reference for the formulation of heated cigarette products from non-flue-cured tobacco leaves.