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Tobacco Science & Technology, 2012, 10, p. 73-76, ISSN.1002-0861

Variation analysis of sugar/nicotine ratio in flue-cured tobacco leaves from main growing areas in China

CHEN Shengli(1,2); ZHANG Yulin(2); ZHANG Zhanjun(2); GUO Shuhua(2); CHEN Fei(1); XU Zicheng(1)
(1) Tobacco Science College, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450002, P.R. China; (2) Shanxian Branch of Sanmenxia City Tobacco Company, Shanxian 472000, Henan, P.R. China

742 samples were analyzed to investigate the distribution of sugar/nicotine ratio in flue-cured tobacco leaves among different areas, varieties and grades. The results indicated that: sugar/nicotine ratio in the samples ranged widely from 2.47 to 31.77 with the average value of 10.45 and variation coefficient of 45.31 %. The samples with sugar/nicotine ratio in the range of 6 to 10 accounted for 39.30 % of the total samples. The sugar/nicotine ratio of Heilongjiang tobacco leaves reached 16.18, while that of Shaanxi and Chongqing was 5.81 and 7.18, respectively. With the average value of 16.88, the sugar/nicotine ratio of cv. Longjiang 911 was the highest; while the sugar/nicotine ratio of NC89 was the lowest with the average value of 8.51. The grades in the order of sugar/nicotine ratio were X2F>C3F>C2F>B2F. There was significant different among leaves of different areas, varieties and grades. Correlation analysis showed that the correlation between sugar/nicotine ratio and other main chemical components in tobacco differed significantly among growing areas and grades.