Relationships Between Elevation And Quality Of Tobacco Leaves In Sichuan Area

In this paper the tested material selected from the group consisting of81samplesfrom C3F of153monitoring points in four tobacco regions of Liangshan, Panzhihua, Dazhou,Sichuan Luzhou of Sichuan tobacco area. Using partial least squares and principal componentanalysis analysised the relationships between the elevation and appearance quality, chemicalcomposition, aroma substances, organic acids, smoking quality.Main results were as follows:（1）In appearance quality, the range of color was between lemon yellow to orange,the rangeof maturity was between fully ripened to maturity, the range of blade structure was between littleloose to loose, the range of identity was between thick to medium, the range of oil was betweensome to many, the range of chroma was between medium to strong.The variation coefficient ofidentity, oil and chroma were larger, but the other quality indexs were all smaller.The color andchroma was highly positive correlation with elevation. The color and chroma was highly positivecorrelation with elevation.The maturity, identity, oil, chroma and total score was negativecorrelation with elevation, including the oil was highly negative correlation with elevation.Therelational order of elevation and appearance quality was maturity, the total score, blade structure,color, identity, oil, and chroma.（2）Sichuan tobacco chemical components had of total sugar, reducing sugar a large scalesof variation but potassium had a small scales of variation.The coefficient variation of chlorine andstarch content were larger, but the coefficient variation of other indexs were smaller.The totalsugar, reducing sugar, starch and chlorine were positive correlation with elevation, but the nicotine,total nitrogen and potassium were negative correlation with elevation. Include, the sugar andchlorine content were highly positive correlation with elevation, but the potassium was highlynegative correlation with elevation. The relational order of elevation and chemical componentswas total sugar, reducing sugar, total nitrogen, nitrogen/nicotine ratio, potassium, nicotine, starch,sugar/nicotine ratio, chloride and potassium/chloride ratio.（3）In different elevation, neutral aroma constituents indexs were large different with others.The range of neophytadiene and neutral aroma components of gross were larger and thestandard deviation was larger than other degradation products. The variation coefficients of thecembrane type class was largest and the brown reaction product was smallest. The brown reactionproduct, phenylalanine class and cembrane type class was negative correlation with elevation,butcarotenoids, neophytadiene and neutral aroma components of gross was negative correlation withelevation.The elevation was highly positive correlation with the brown reaction product andhighly negative correlation with neophytadiene, neutral aroma components of gross. The relationalorder of elevation and neutral aroma constituents was the brown reaction product, neutral aromacomponents of gross, neophytadiene, carotenoids, cembrane type class and phenylalanine class.（4）The average of volatile organic acid,non volatile organic acid and total organic acid waslower and standard deviation was larger. The variation coefficient were performanced for volatileorganic acid＞non volatile organic acid＞total organic acid. The volatile organic acid and totalorganic acid was negative correlation with elevation, but the non volatile organic acid was positivecorrelation with elevation. Include, the volatile organic acid and total organic acid was highlynegative correlation with elevation. The relational order of elevation and organic acid was the nonvolatile organic acid, total organic acid and volatile organic acid.（5）In Sichuan tobacco area, the standard deviation of total score and the aroma quality werelarger but the other indexs were smaller. The variation coefficients of sweet feeling was largest butthe aroma amount was smallest, the rest of the smoking quality index were also between6%and8%. The aroma amount, aroma quality, miscellaneous gas, irritation, sweet feeling, dry, delicatedegree, round and total score was positive correlation with elevation, including the dry anddelicate degree was highly positive correlation with elevation.The aftertaste was highly negativecorrelation with elevation.The relational order of elevation and smoking quality was dry>delicatedegree> irritation> aftertaste> total score> aroma quality> aroma amount> miscellaneous gas>sweet feeling> round.（6）The elevation of Sichuan tobacco area had large scales of average, the sample number ofelevation was focus on medium to high.And then analysised the principal component of theclusters of color, blade structure, total sugar, reducing sugar, total nitrogen, potassium, brownreaction product, the total amount of neutral aroma constituents, total organic acids, dry, delicate, irritation, aftertaste. The samples according to the different elevations was divided into four maincategories. There were some overlaps among the elevation in different groups, basically behavedclassⅠ＞classⅣ＞classⅢ＞classⅡ.In class Ⅰt he appearance quality andchemical components were middle-high, the organicacid was middle-low, the neutral aroma component was lower while the smoking quality was thehighest. In class II the appearance quality and chemical components were middle-low, the organicacid was middle-high, the neutral aroma component was the highest while the smoking qualitywas lowest. In class III the appearance quality was the highest but sugar content was the lowestwhile nitrogen and potassium content was the highest, the neutral aroma component wasmiddle-high, the organic acid was lowest, the smoking quality was middle-low. In class Ⅳtheappearance quality was lower, the sugar and chlorine content was higher while nitrogen andpotassium content was the lowest, the neutral aroma component was middle-low, the organic acidwas highest and the smoking quality was middle-high.