HPLC Determination of Organic Acids in Tobacco

A HPLC method for the determination of organic acids in tobacco was proposed. The sample was extracted with 0.1 mol·L-1 NaOH solution by high-speed homogenization, and the extract obtained was purified on MCI-GEL reversed phase resin SPE column. The organic acids were separated by gradient elution with mixed solutions of 0.01 mol·L-1 NaH2PO4 of pH 2.98 and acetonitrile (98+2) in different ratios on ZORBAX Stable Bound column (4.6 mm×150 mm, 1.8 μm), and determined at the wavelength of 210 nm with diode array detector (DAD). The main organic acids in tobacco were successfully separated within 12 min, giving values of recovery in the range of 95.0%-103.0% and RSD′s (n=7) in the range of 1.8%-2.8%.