Analysis of the aroma components in tobacco using combined GC-MS and AMDIS

The aroma components in tobacco were extracted by simultaneous distillation and extraction, and analyzed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. An automated mass spectral deconvolution and identification system (AMDIS) was used to analyze the data from the full scan mode. AMDIS system could effectively resolve the problem of matrix interference, analyze low concentrations of aroma components in complex samples, and help to remove the interference of overlapping components. In studying 132 real samples, fifty-eight aroma components of each sample were identified by the AMDIS method as reported in this paper. The relative concentrations of seventeen aroma components relative to neophytadien were less than 0.028%. Among all the aromas, 21 had a complicated background, and the other 10 aroma components were not separated completely by the chromatographic method. This study shows that AMDIS is a powerful tool which has the potential to be a comprehensive method for revealing the quality and quantity of chemical constituents of cut tobacco samples from different sources. In this paper, the AMDIS method was used to identify pure components from a complex spectrum and then compare the mass spectra with a reference library. This method shows potential for rapid analysis of components in various complex matrices.