Potentiotitrimetric Determination of Total Volatile Acids in Tobacco with Separation by Steam Distillation

The volatile acids in tobacco were separated by steam distillation, and content of total volatile acids in the distillate was determined by potentiometric titration. Standard sodium hydroxide solution was used as titrant. Test of accuracy was made by the addition of trifluoro acetic acid, giving values of recovery in the ranges of 98%-103%. Precision was tested by analyzing 3 tobacco samples, giving values of RSD′s (n=7) in the range of 1.0%-1.1%. It was found that accuracy and precision obtained by the present method were better than that of the conventional manual titration method.