Effect of Adding Sugar to Burley Tobacco on the Emission of Aldehydes in Mainstream Tobacco Smoke

Abstract

Objectives: Sugars in tobacco products enhance the taste and smoke characteristics of the blend. Sugars are often added to processed tobacco, particularly air-cured Burley tobacco leaves that contain virtually no sugars. The most commonly used sugars were systematically added to Burley tobacco to study the effect on aldehyde emissions in mainstream smoke. Methods: Two levels of sucrose, glucose, and fructose were added to Burley tobacco. Formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, acetone, acrolein, crotonaldehyde, propionaldehyde, and butanal in mainstream smoke were sampled on Carboxen 572 cartridges and determined by HPLC-DAD. Results: The addition of sugars to Burley tobacco resulted in an increase of the aldehydes acetaldehyde, acrolein, crotonaldehyde, propionaldehyde, and butanal in the mainstream tobacco smoke. This increase is specific, as much lower increases in tar, nicotine, and carbon monoxide levels were observed. The observed aldehyde level increases ranged from 5% to 40%. The increase was higher after the addition of fructose compared to sucrose and glucose. Conclusions: Sugars added to Burley tobacco increase the emissions of aldehydes, an important class of toxicants in tobacco smoke. Limiting sugars levels in processed tobacco may be an effective approach in tobacco product regulation to reduce the attractiveness of smoking, and the toxicants levels in cigarette smoke.

Aldehyde and Volatile Organic Compound Yields in Commercial Cigarette Mainstream Smoke Are Mutually Related and Depend on the Sugar and Humectant Content in Tobacco

“…The current study, a multivariate analysis of relations within and between several contents and emissions in a market sample of more than 50 cigarette brands, corroborates previous results regarding the relation between sugars in tobacco and aldehydes in smoke. 45 Moreover, the current results indeed make clear that the relation even holds when sugar contents are not the only variable as in the previous study, where sugars were added to Burley tobacco that contains virtually no sugars. Commercial cigarettes, on the other hand, differ in many aspects regarding their physical design and the composition of the tobacco blend.…”

“… 44 Recent work of Cheah et al also shows that the addition of sugars to Burley tobacco, which contains virtually no natural sugars, causes an increase of the aldehydes acetaldehyde, acrolein, crotonaldehyde, propionaldehyde, and butanal in the mainstream tobacco smoke. 45 2,5-Dimethylfuran showed a correlation with several sugars under both ISO and Intense smoking conditions and is known to be formed upon thermal degradation of some sugars. 10 , 46 …”

Lipid Peroxidation Produces a Diverse Mixture of Saturated and Unsaturated Aldehydes in Exhaled Breath That Can Serve as Biomarkers of Lung Cancer—A Review

“…Similar to the challenge of using propanal as a biomarker, the numerous exogenous sources of butanal complicate the characterization of butanal as a biomarker. Common ambient butanal sources include tobacco smoke [109] and food [110]. Butanal is a principal VOC emitted from municipal solid waste treatment plants [111].…”

IDENTIFICATION OF -308 TNF-α PROMOTER SINGLE NUCLEOTIDE POLYMORPHISM IN ACTIVE AND PASSIVE SMOKERS

“…Smoking will produce smoke because of the burning of the cigarettes. Tobacco is the main ingredients of cigarettes and often supplemented with sugar as an additional sweetener (Cheah et al, 2018).…”