Analysis of Minor Alkaloids in Tobacco: A Collaborative Study

A collaborative study regarding the analysis of minor alkaloids in tobacco and tobacco products was initiated by the Analytical Methods Committee of the Tobacco Science Research Conference (TSRC). One purpose of the study was to assess the reliability of methods used for the analysis of minor alkaloids and nicotine in tobacco and tobacco products, as practiced in different laboratories. A second purpose was to select a preferred method or to develop a hybrid method based on the best elements from the procedures currently used for the analysis of minor alkaloids. A hybrid method was developed and its results compared with the values from existing methods. The hybrid method proves to be reliable, has good repeatability, and is easy to implement. This new method can be used as a reference procedure for minor alkaloids and nicotine analysis using either flame ionization (FID) or mass spectrometric (MS) detection. A comparison with the older techniques shows that the hybrid method considerably improved the repeatability, but only marginally increased the reproducibility for different laboratories. This may be, in part, because any new method requires some time to become fully standardized and reliable. Also, the contribution of other sources of variation such as different standards and different equipment may have limited the improvement in reproducibility.