Effects of aroma additives on the release of smoke during the pyrolysis of reconstituted tobacco

The effects of typical acid and alkaline aroma additives on the release characteristics of aroma components from reconstituted tobacco were studied. In this study, the pyrolysis of reconstituted tobacco samples loaded with different aroma components was carried out, and the aroma components in the smoke were analyzed by the GC-MS. The results showed that adding a certain amount of acid aroma components in reconstituted tobacco could promote the release of aroma components in smoke. However, excessive acid aroma additives could inhibit the Maillard reaction to decrease the formation of additional aroma components during pyrolysis. The addition of ethanol in reconstituted tobacco could promote the release of olefin and acid aroma components in smoke. Alkaline aroma additives (sodium bicarbonate and potassium carbonate) could promote the release of all kinds of aroma components in smoke, because potassium and sodium ions could catalyze the pyrolysis of tobacco, which was preferred to generate aroma components. According to these results, the best promoting effect of the aroma components released in smoke was performed by adding 0.078 wt% of potassium carbonate and 0.01 wt% of citric acid in reconstituted tobacco.