Determination of (+)-alpha-tocopherol in environmental tobacco smoke

A high-performance liquid chromatographic method is described for the quantitation of (+)-alpha-tocopherol in the particulate phase of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) collected on a 1-micron pore size Fluoropore membrane. A methanol (MeOH) extract of the membrane, which can be used for four other ETS procedures, is analyzed for (+)-alpha-tocopherol on a reversed-phase column with fluorescence detection at selective wavelengths of 280 nm excitation and 330 nm emission. A mobile phase of MeOH and water is used. The method is reproducible with a relative standard deviation (%) of about 12. Recovery is 88%, and the procedure is capable of detecting greater than 0.04 microgram/m3 (+)-alpha-tocopherol in ETS. A comparison of the ETS from five commercially available cigarettes shows similar (+)-alpha-tocopherol concentrations. A cigarette that primarily heats tobacco yields about 6% of that amount of (+)-alpha-tocopherol found in ETS from tobacco-burning cigarettes. (+)-alpha-Tocopherol can be used as a marker for ETS respirable suspended particles (RSP) because it is found at a consistent amount in ETS RSP of 0.29%. However, sufficient amounts of RSP would have to be generated in order to detect (+)-alpha-tocopherol.