Abstract: To accurately determine the amount of seam glue in cigarette tobacco rod, a method was developed by using zinc chloride as a marker. The glue containing zinc chloride was applied on the rod seam which was manufactured using routine technical parameters. The cut tobacco in tested cigarettes was removed, and the content of zinc chloride in the remaining cigarette paper tube was determined by ICP-MS after microwave digestion. The results showed that:1) The detection limit of the method was 0.021 μg/L, the relative standard deviations (RSDs) and recoveries were in the range of 0.85%-1.35% and 97.8%-103.4%, respectively. 2) The RSD of determined glue amount was less than 2.0% at the zinc ion addition rate of 2.5-6.0 mg/g. 3) The determined amount of seam glue agreed reasonably well with the design value of the glue amount by the online control system. The method is suitable for accurately determining the amount of seam glue in cigarette tobacco rod.