Effects of moisture content on flavor components of flue-cured tobacco under ultra high pressure treatment

In order to investigate the effect of moisture content on flavor components of cut flue-cured tobacco during ultra high pressure(UHP) process, the prepared tobacco leaf(middle position leaf, flue-cured tobacco, Henan) was subjected to UHP treatment(moisture, 12%～28%; 500 MPa at 25℃ for 20 min). The changes of main flavor compounds in UHP treated tobacco at different moisture contents were measured by simultaneous distillation and extraction(SDE) and analyzed by capillary gas chromatography. The smoking quality of tobacco was subjected to sensory assessment. The experimental results show that the total content of flavor compounds in tobacco increases with the increase of moisture content and reaches peak value at 24% moisture content; the changes in total content of ketones have the same trends compared with the total content of flavor compounds; the contents of β-phenylethyl alcohol, benzyl alcohol, eugenol and linalool in UHP treated tobacco were increased continuously with the increase of moisture content. The sensory evaluation results demonstrate that smoking quality reaches optimization values at 24% moisture content then decreases. The UHP process can improve the characteristic aroma of cut flue-cured tobacco remarkably, therefore UHP treatment is a potential technique for tobacco processing.