Determination of High Fatty Acids in Tobacco by High Performance Liquid Chromatography with Evaporative Light-Scatter Detector

A method for determining five high fatty acids in tobacco by reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography with an evaporative light-scatter detector using 3 mol/L KOH-C₂H₅OH solution as a saponifier was studied.The results indicated that the relative standard deviations of linolenic,linoleic,palmitic,oleic and stearic acids were 1.53%,2.85%,2.09%,2.35%,1.92%,respectively;and their recoveries ranged fr om 96.5% to 102.3%.The method was suitable for the simultaneous determination of those five high fatty acids in tobacco.