Abstract:Four tobacco-specific nitrosamlnes (TSNAs), including (R,S)-N-Nitrosoanabasine (NAB), (R,S)-N-Nitrosoanatabine (NAT), 4-(Methylnitrosoamino)-1-(3-pyridinyl)-1-butanone (NNK), and rac N’-Nitrosonornicotine (NNN) in tobacco essence and flavor were determined by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Sample were dissolved and extracted with 0.1 mol/L ammonium acetate methanol-water solution. The compounds were separated by gradient elution on C18 column and detected in positive ion mode using multiple reactions monitoring with a triple-quadruple MS of electrospray ionization. The results showed that the limits of detection (S/N= 3) and limits of quantity (S/N= 10) of four TSNAs were in the range of 0.4~1.6 ng/g and 1.4~4.8 ng/g, respectively. The linear correlation coefficients were above 0.9995 within 1~50 ng/L, and the recovery rates were between 93.5% to 105.9% in high, medium and low spiked levels. The relative standard deviation (RSD) of six repeat tests was below 5% (1.8~4.7%). Eight tobacco essence and flavor samples were evaluated by the method, and three samples were detected TSNAs. The method is of good efficiency, sensitivity and selectivity, and can be successfully applied to determine the TSNAs in varieties of tobacco essence and flavor.
