Producing area discrimination of tobacco leaves based on mineral element fingerprinting technology

Objective: This paper discusses the feasibility of using mineral element fingerprinting technology of to identify tobacco producing areas, screens out the effective indicators, and constructs the discrimination model of tobacco producing areas. Methods: The contents of 20 mineral elements in tobacco leaves from 11 producing areas were simultaneously determined by ICP-MS, and the data were analyzed by variance analysis, cluster analysis, principal component analysis and discriminant analysis. Results: The contents of 16 elements were significantly different among producing areas, and principal component analysis resulted in 6 principal components, with the cumulative variance contribution of 89.253%. Using linear discriminant analysis, four elementsmineral, K, Mn, Se and Ba, were screened as the effective indicators to discriminate the geographical origin of tobacco leaves. The established discriminant model could accurately distinguish tobacco leaf samples from different tobacco producing areas. Conclusion: Significant differences were showed in the contents of mineral elements in tobacco leaves from 11 producing areas. Four elements, K, Mn, Se and Ba, are important indicators for distinguishing tobacco producing areas. Mineral element fingerprinting technology can be used for distinguishing tobacco producing areas.