Analysis and study on volatile flavor compounds of three Yunnan cultivated cigars based on headspace-gas chromatography-ion mobility spectrometry

Abstract To investigate the differences in the volatile compounds of three main cultivars, Yunxue No. 1, Yunxue No. 36, and Yunxue No. 39, from Yunnan, the volatile flavor components were analyzed by headspace-gas chromatography-ion mobility spectrometry (HS-GC-IMS). Principal component analysis and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis were applied to investigate the differences in volatile flavor compounds among the three cigar tobacco varieties. GC-IMS detection results indicate that a total of 74 volatile organic compounds were detected in the cigars , including 11 types of aldehydes, ketones, alcohols, acids, esters, hydrocarbons, thiols, benzene derivatives, heterocycles, ethers, and terpenoids. Among the three cigar tobacco samples, esters, hydrocarbons, ketones, and aldehydes are the primary contributors to the overall flavor, though significant variations exist in their types and contents. This study showed that HS-GC-IMS was efficient in analyzing the composition and content of aroma components in cigar leaves. This technology can be used to establish relationships between aroma component composition/content and variety. This research provides data support for the style positioning and quality improvement of Yunnan cigars and further achieve the purpose of identifying and tracing the origin of cigars.