Abstract:
In order to investigate the chemical composition and content of smokeless tobacco products, the compositions and contents of routine chemical components, additives and harmful components and their analytical methods were reviewed. Literature research indicated that tobacco pH, moisture content, nicotine (total content, free nicotine) differed remarkably between smokeless tobacco products of different types and brands. Additives involves a wide variety of ingredients and substances, however, there is limited literature on their exact nature and contents. The contents of harmful components are at trace levels as reported in the literature reviewed; as main class of harmful components, TSNAs stand out as the main concerned substances. GC and GC-MS are usually used to analyze routine chemical components and additives, while MS/MS detectors with high selectivity and high sensitivity are usually used to detect harmful components. The chemical profile analysis of smokeless tobacco products is still frontier research. In the development of domestic smokeless tobacco products, the blend composition should be designed by referring to the composition and content of routine chemical components and additives reported to minimize potential harmful components. To achieve high throughput detection, multi-target or chemical profile analysis could be adopted to determine the chemical components in smokeless tobacco products.