Simultaneous Analysis of Organic Acids in Tobacco by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry

A method based on ultrasonic extraction and silyl derivation coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry was developed for simultaneous determination of 26 volatile,semi-volatile organic acids in tobacco leaves,with sorbic acid and cinnamic acid as the double internal standards.The results showed that the method had wide linear ranges.The relative standard deviations(RSDs) were between 0.87% and 5.67%,and the recoveries ranged from 83.5% to 109.6%.The detection limits and quantitative limits were 0.33～8.27 μg/L and 1.08～27.55 μg/L,respectively,which were much lower than the contents of organic acids in real tobacco leaves.This method was easy to operate,time saving,repeatable,sensitive,and was suitable for simultaneous determination of volatile,semi-volatile organic acids in tobacco samples.