Determination of Total Alkaloid in Tobacco by Reaction of Potassium Thiocyanate and Sodium Dichloroisocyanurate Dihydrate

To determine the total alkaloid in tobacco accurately and reduce the safety risk,a method was developed by using potassium thiocyanate and sodium dichloroisocyanurate dihydrate(DCIC) as reaction reagents in continuous flow analyzer.The preferable concentrations of potassium thiocyanate and DCIC were 0.124 and 0.04 mol/L,respectively.This method was compared with the current industrial standard method,the total alkaloid in 9 tobacco samples including flue-cured,burley and oriental tobacco were analyzed.The developed method featured that:the limit of detection and limit of quantification were 0.0018 and 0.0062 mg/mL,respectively;and the recoveries of the method ranged from 94.4% to 105.4%.This method is safer and suitable for the determination of total alkaloid in tobacco with the advantages of using no toxic potassium cyanate.