Separation and analysis of constituents of acidic compounds in tobacco leaf by using comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography/time-of-flight mass spectrometry

Comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography/time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC × GC-TOFMS) was applied to the characterization of volatile and semi-volatile acidic compounds in oriental tobacco leaf. Simultaneous distillation extraction (SDE) was used as the sample extraction method. Two types of column sets were compared, and appropriate GC × GC separation conditions were suggested. The separation behavior on two-dimensional plot of different kinds of compounds were investigated. TOFMS library search combining with structured chromatogram of GC × GC was used to identify the acidic compounds in tobacco leaf. A total of 143 acidic compounds were tentatively identified, including 10 acid anhydrides, 43 organic acids and 90 phenolic compounds. The results show that GC × GC-TOFMS method is suitable for separation and identification of complex sample.