Abstract
Asmus et al. have published an analytical procedure for the quantitative separate determination of nicotine and pyridine in tobacco smoke. Their method has been slightly modified in order to adapt it to the standard procedure of smoke alkaloid analysis. The modified method allows the accurate determination of the nicotine alkaloids and the pyridines; the latter can be assayed with a precision of ± 0.7 µg per cigarette, for a total of 21 µg pyridine per cigarette (95 % confidence limits). Preliminary results using this method indicate that the mainstream smoke of one cigarette contains between about 20 (sun-cured and flue-cured tobaccos) and 50 (air-cured tobaccos) µg of pyridine. The stub of a straight cigarette shows a marked retention efficiency for smoke pyridine; still better retention is observed through a cigarette filter from cellulose acetate, whereas filters on a paper or cellulose basis are less efficient. It is usual to separate the pyridines from the other smoke bases by steam distillation in presence of acetic acid or a buffer solution. It is shown that this procedure is inefficient. The simple pyridines contributing rarely more than 2 percent to the mass of the total smoke bases, there seems to be no real necessity of determining their amount in the course of a routine determination of the smoke alkaloids.