ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Metabolism and Chemodiversity
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1672119
Unraveling Flavor Formation Mechanism of Cigar Smoke through Volatile Compounds in Cigar Smoke and Potential Precursors in Cigar Tobacco
Provisionally accepted
Xiaowei Zhang1Tianyu Dong2Dan Chen1Haowei Sun1Anchuan Xu3Chunqiong Wang1Dan Li1Jieyun Cai1Lingduo Bu4
Ke Zhang1*
Haitao Chen2*- 1Yunnan Tobacco Quality Inspection & Supervision Station, Kunming,Yunnan, China
- 2Beijing Technology and Business University, Beijing, China
- 3Technology Center, China Tobacco Yunnan Industrial Co., Ltd., Kunming, Yunnan, China
- 4Yunnan Tobacco Company Yuxi Branch, Yuxi, China
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The flavor of cigar smoke directly influences the consumer's willingness to purchase. However, the analysis of cigar smoke was lack. In this research, a total of 235 volatile compounds were identified by GC×GC-TOFMS in cigar smoke from Yuxi, Dehong and Pu'er regions of Yunnan, including 72 alkenes, 47 aromatic hydrocarbons, 42 heterocyclics, 28 ketones, 8 alcohols, 4 aldehydes, 3 esters, 13 phenols, 5 acetonitrile and 13 others. ROAV analysis indicated that o-cresol, guaiacol, 2,6-dimethyl-phenol, 4-hydroxy-3-methoxystyrene, (E,E)-2,4-hexadienal, butylbenzene, naphthalene, nicotine and D-limonene might be the key flavor compounds. By OPLS-DA, 2-methyl-pyridine, 2,4-dimethylfuran, 2-carene, 13-heptadecyn-1-ol, 1-ethyl-2-methyl-benzene, 2,3,5,8-tetramethyl-1,5,9-decatrien, 1-ethyl-4-methyl-benzene, β-elemene, methyl isobutyl ketone and 3-methylcyclopentanone were found to be the differential volatiles distinguishing samples from different areas. Eventually, 5 groups of potential flavor precursors were summarized and identified (cembranoid, phenylalanine, chlorophyll, carotenoid and reducing sugar). This research has provided theoretical guidance for the improvement of flavor quality of cigar smoke in Yunnan.
Keywords: Cigar smoke, Solvent-assisted flavor evaporation (SAFE), Comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography with time of flight mass spectrometry (GC×GC-TOFMS), Flavor precursor, relative odor activity value (ROAV), Orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA), Flavor formation mechanism
Received: 23 Jul 2025; Accepted: 08 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Dong, Chen, Sun, Xu, Wang, Li, Cai, Bu, Zhang and Chen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Ke Zhang, Yunnan Tobacco Quality Inspection & Supervision Station, Kunming,Yunnan, China
Haitao Chen, Beijing Technology and Business University, Beijing, China
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