Determination of Safrole and Coumarin in Tobacco Essence by Capillary Column-Gas Chromatography

Sample of tobacco essence was ultrasonically extracted with methanol and centrifuged at high speed. The supernatant obtained was filtrated with 0.45 μm filterring membrane and used for GC determination. SE-54 capillary column was used for separation of safrole and coumarin, FID as well as external standard method were adopted in the determination. Linear relationships between the values of peak area and mass concentration of safrole and coumarin were kept in the same range from 1.0 to 50.0 mg·L-1, with detection limits (3S/N) of 0.3 and 0.4 mg·L-1 respectively. The values of recovery found by standard addition method were in the ranges of 88.0%-94.7% for safrole and 89.0%-94.0% for coumarin, with RSD′s (n=6) in the ranges of 0.8%-4.5% and 1.2%-5.7% respectively.