Analysis of volatile and semi-volatile alkaline 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 X GC-TOFMS) has been applied for characterization of volatile and semi-volatile alkaline compounds in oriental tobacco leaf. Simultaneous distillation extraction (SDE) was used as the sample extraction method. Two types of column set were compared, and appropriate GC X GC separation conditions were suggested. The results showed that the peaks detected by GC X GC method were far more than that by 1DGC. The separation behavior on 2D plot of different kinds of compounds was investigated. TOFMS library search combining structured chromatogram. of GC X GC was used to identify the nitrogen-containing compounds in tobacco leaf. A total of 92 alkaline compounds were tentatively identified. The results showed that GC X GC/TOFMS method is suitable for separation and identification of complex system.