Abstract:

In the current study, the sensory qualities and the chemical composition, including total sugar, reducing sugar, nicotine, total nitrogen, chlorine, and potassium, were assessed for thirty types of debris of tobacco planted in Yunnan Province. The data were then analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and canonical correlation analysis. The results show that: (1) Compare with ordinary tobacco leaves, the debris is significantly different in the chemical components, presenting lower concentrations of nicotine, total sugar, and reducing sugar, and higher ratio of total nitrogen to nicotine. (2) With respect to the impacts of the chemical composition on sensory qualities, the results between the correlation analysis and the canonical correlation analysis are consistent. While the simple correlation analysis reveals that the sensory qualities are pronounced affected by reducing sugar, total sugar, the difference between reducing sugar and total sugar, and the ratio of nitrogen to nicotine, the canonical correlation analysis shows similar effects. The canonical correlation analysis reveals the ranking order of effect sizes, from large to small, as follows: total sugar, reducing sugar, the difference between reducing sugar and total sugar, the ratio of sugar to nicotine, the ration of nitrogen to nicotine, total nitrogen, nicotine, chlorine, potassium, and the ratio of potassium to chlorine. (3) Based on the present study, it is concluded that the sensory qualities can be basically indicated, to some extent, by the concentrations of total sugar and reducing sugar, the difference between reducing sugar and total sugar, and the ratio of sugar to nicotine.