Determination of tobacco alkaloids using solid phase microextraction and GC-NPD

Summary The sampling approaches using solid phase microextraction (SPME) were evaluated for the analysis of tobacco alkaloids. Because of their low volatility and ionic nature, sampling alkaloids from the headspace of dry or wet tobacco samples often required more effort to improve extraction efficiency. Directly dipping the SPME fiber coated with polydimethylsiloxane film into the tobacco extract was proved to be a simple, effective tool for sampling alkaloids from tobacco. When combined with the practice of fast GC and nitrogen-phosphorus detection, nicotine and a group of selected minor alkaloids (i.e., nornicotines, myosmine, anabasine and anatabine) were separated with baseline resolution within 3 min. The detection limits for these alkaloids are below 0.1 μg mL⁻¹. In addition, the carry-over problem frequently occurred in alkaloids analysis was eliminated. The influence of tobacco matrix and fiber aging on the partition of alkaloids, as well as the use of an internal standard to compensate these deviations, were also studied.