Relationship between style orientation and chemical components of light-flavour flue-cured tobacco in Fujian tobacco-growing areas

【Objective】 The objective of this study was to analyze the relationship of the style characteristics with chemical composition and sensory quality of light-flavour flue-cured tobacco in Fujian tobacco-growing areas，aiming to provide theoretical basis for the production of high-quality light-flavour tobacco leaves with distinctive characteristics. 【Method】 CB-1，a characteristic flue-cured tobacco variety in Fujian，was used as the experimental material. A total of 90 samples of C3F grade tobacco leaves were collected from the main tobacco-growing areas in Changting，Fujian. The main chemical components of the tobacco leaves were determined，and the relationship between chemical components and sensory evaluation and style characteristics was analyzed using descriptive statistics，simple correlation and regression analysis. 【Result】 The contents of total sugar（34.67%-40.00%），reducing sugar（20.53%-30.43%），potassium（1.99%-3.19%）， and starch（3.67%-8.10%）in the tobacco leaves were relatively high，while the contents of total nitrogen（1.23%-1.80%） and nicotine（1.06%-2.61%）were suitable，and the content of chlorine（0.05%-0.16%）was relatively low. In the sensory evaluation of tobacco leaves，fineness was significantly and negatively correlated with total nitrogen content（P<0.05，the same below），extremely significantly and negatively correlated with chlorine content（P<0.01，the same below），significantly and positively correlated with starch content，and extremely significantly and positively correlated with the potassium-chlorine ratio. The miscellaneous gas was significantly and positively correlated with potassium content. The results of the multiple linear regression equation between the style manifestation of light-flavour and chemical components indicated that the degree of style manifestation of light-flavour was positively correlated with nicotine，starch and potassium content，and negatively correlated with total sugar content and sugar-alkali ratio. The regression analysis of different prominent fragrance rhymes with chemical components showed consistent correlation of the two in total sugar，nicotine， starch，potassium and chlorine content，as well as sugar-alkali ratio. The comparison results of the light-flavour style manifestation of middle leaves in different chemical component intervals indicated that when the nicotine content was greater than 2.5%，the light-flavour style significantly increased. When the total nitrogen content was 1.3%-1.4%，potassium content was 2.4%-2.6%，sugar-alkali ratio was ≤15，nitrogen-alkali ratio was ≤0.7，and potassium-chlorine ratio was 40-50，the light-flavour style of tobacco leaves was more pronounced. 【Conclusion】 The characteristic flue-cured tobacco variety CB-1 in Fujian tobacco-growing areas has a coordinated chemical components，fine fragrance quality，rich fragrance rhyme，and good overall style quality. Five chemical indexes including total sugar，nicotine，starch，potassium contents，and sugar-alkali ratio and Chlorine all showed consistent correlation in different style manifestation with various prominent fragrance rhyme.