Hongmei Fan

Effect and Mechanism of High-Pressure Processing: A Case Study of Flue-Cured Tobacco

Summary After a high-pressure processing (HPP) treatment sensory evaluation of flue-cured tobacco showed modifications. There was no significant difference (P > 0.05) between the routine chemical components (total sugar, reducing sugar, nicotine, and total nitrogen) of flue-cured tobacco after high-pressure processing treatment (HPP sample) and that of an untreated control group (CG). An overall judgement, which can be made from the observations of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray computed microtomography (micro-CT) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), is that HPP could compress the inner tunnel and tissue gap in a flue-cured tobacco leaf. However, the ultrastructure, such as the cellular cytoskeleton, would not be changed. Compared with CG, the apparent density of the HPP sample rose by 19.3%, while the true density only rose by 1.4%. This also explained that the main effect of high-pressure processing on flue-cured tobacco was microstructure compression rather than compression on the ultrastructure level. The differences between the lamina (leaf-shaped) sample, which were caused by high-pressure processing, were reflected in terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS), simultaneous thermal analysis (STA), and pyrolysis gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS). When the same tests were carried out using a sample that was milled to a powder, however, these differences were nearly removed. The milling process destroyed most of the microstructure of the flue-cured tobacco lamina; therefore, the results of THz-TDS, STA, and Py-GC/MS confirmed the hypothesis: That 400 MPa high-pressure processing treatment minimally changes the ultrastructure of flue-cured tobacco and only changes its relatively larger microstructure.

Application of Triethyl Citrate to Filters in Virginia Type Cigarettes

Abstract Triethyl citrate (TEC) was applied in the preparation of cigarette filter rods by two approaches. One was to utilize TEC as a plasticizer sprayed onto the surface of cellulose acetate (CA) fibers. The other was to apply TEC as an additive coated onto the cellulosic paper of acetate-paper dual filters. Three types of cigarette filter rods, namely, triethyl citrate-cellulose acetate (TEC-CA) filter rods, triethyl citrate-cellulose acetate-paper (TEC-CA-paper) dual filter rods and cellulose acetate-paper-triethyl citrate (CA-paper-TEC) dual filter rods, were manufactured. In order to promote the curing of CA rods, high-frequency radiation was introduced into the procedure of filter manufacture. Then Virginia type cigarettes, combined with the three kinds of prepared filter rods were manufactured and the removal efficiency of phenols from the cigarette mainstream smoke was investigated. The results revealed that no matter where the triethyl citrate was applied as plasticizer or coating additive, the content of phenol, o-, m-and p-cresol in cigarette mainstream smoke could be greatly reduced. The optimal removal efficiency for phenol was 50% compared with the control. [Beitr. Tabakforsch. Int. 26 (2014) 176-182]