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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Metabolism and Chemodiversity
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1557190
Analysis of differences in cigar tobacco leaves from different regions based on GC-IMS and LC-MS metabolomics techniques
Provisionally accepted
Dan Chen 1 Liang Feng 2 Haowei Sun 1 Risheng Zhong 2 Chunqiong Wang 1 Xiaowei Zhang 1 Ke Zhang 1 Ling-Duo Bu 3 Wanlong Yang 4 Kai Liu 1*
Haitao Chen 2* Shuqi Wang 2- 1 Yunnan Tobacco Quality Inspection & Supervision Station, Yunnan, China
- 2 Beijing Technology and Business University, Beijing, China
- 3 Yunnan Tobacco Company, Yuxi Branch, Yunnan, China
- 4 Yunnan Oriental Tobacco Company.,Ltd., Yunnan, China
This study aimed to investigate the differences in volatile compound composition and metabolites in cigar tobacco leaves from different regions of Yunnan. Cigar tobacco leaves from various regions and varieties in Yunnan were analysed using gas chromatography-ion mobility spectrometry and nontargeted metabolomics techniques. Results showed that 109 volatile compounds, including 26 esters, 17 aldehydes, 14 alcohols, 14 ketones, 9 olefins, 5 pyrazines, 4 ethers, 4 acids and 16 others, were identified in cigar tobacco leaves. Through GC-IMS analysis of volatile compounds in cigar tobacco from 10 regions, 1-methylethyl acetate, diethyl acetal, butanal, 1-hexanol, pyridine, and toluene were identified as common compounds with consistently high content across all regions. For regional characteristics, BS-Y1-1 is featured by high levels of 2,3-diethyl-6-methylpyrazine and phenylacetaldehyde; PE-Y2 shows the highest content of 3-methyl-1-pentanol; and WS-Y38 is characterized by significantly high levels of butan-2-one. These differences reflect the uniqueness of volatile components in cigar tobacco from different producing areas. The volatile compounds in Yunnan cigar tobacco leaves were greatly influenced by the origin and species, with cigar tobacco leaves from the Baoshan region differing from those in other regions. According to the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment analysis, amino acid metabolism, nucleotide metabolism and glyoxylate and dicarboxylate metabolism were the main metabolic pathways, and their metabolites contributed to the formation of flavour in Yunnan cigar tobacco leaves.
Keywords: LC-MS1, Regional differences2, chemical composition3, Volatile compounds4, Chemometrics5
Received: 08 Jan 2025; Accepted: 27 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Chen, Feng, Sun, Zhong, Wang, Zhang, Zhang, Bu, Yang, Liu, Chen and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Kai Liu, Yunnan Tobacco Quality Inspection & Supervision Station, Yunnan, China
Haitao Chen, Beijing Technology and Business University, Beijing, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.