A roasting method with sugar supplement to make better use of discarded tobacco leaves

Abstract Water soluble sugars play an important role in the flavors and irritations of the cigarette sensory quality and the low content of water soluble sugars in the discarded tobacco leaves was a huge obstacle for their application. To make better use of the discarded tobacco leaves, a novel roasting method with sugar supplement was developed to enhance the sugar contents and total flavor compounds (TFCs) of tobaccos. Three main factors in the roasting process namely the reaction time, reaction temperature, and glucose supplement were optimized by single factor methodology. A proper condition was established as reaction time of 10 min, reaction temperature of 140 °C, and glucose supplement of 30%, which was further optimized by the response surface method through a three-level-three-variable Box–Behnken design. Moreover, the flavor compounds of the roasted cut tobacco extracts were analyzed and their effects in cigarettes were also determined. All these results suggested that this simple and easy method could be used to make better use of discarded tobacco leaves.