Rapid and chemically selective nicotine quantification in smokeless tobacco products using GC-MS

Area of Science:

• Analytical Chemistry
• Tobacco Science

Background:

• Smokeless tobacco products have rapidly increased, featuring diverse nicotine levels and flavors.
• The standard CDC nicotine method using gas chromatography-flame ionization detection (GC-FID) faces interference issues with certain flavored products.
• Accurate nicotine measurement is crucial for understanding tobacco content and un-protonated nicotine calculations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a modified analytical method for accurate nicotine quantification in smokeless tobacco.
• To address limitations of the GC-FID method in analyzing complex flavored smokeless tobacco products.
• To provide a versatile method for analyzing diverse domestic and international smokeless tobacco samples.

Main Methods:

• Modification of the standard nicotine method using faster gas chromatography (GC) ramping.
• Implementation of GC with mass spectrometry (GC-MS) detection in selected ion-monitoring mode.
• Analysis of conventional smokeless samples and spiked tobacco samples using both GC-FID and GC-MS.

Main Results:

• The modified GC-MS method demonstrated excellent agreement with the GC-FID method for nicotine quantification.
• GC-MS provided crucial confirmation of chromatographic peak purity in highly flavored smokeless tobacco samples.
• The GC-MS method effectively reduced signal interferences that can bias nicotine measurements.

Conclusions:

• The developed GC-MS method offers enhanced accuracy and reliability for nicotine quantification in complex smokeless tobacco matrices.
• GC-MS serves as a valuable complementary technique to GC-FID, particularly for analyzing flavored products.
• This method supports accurate nicotine content determination, vital for regulatory and research purposes in tobacco product analysis.