Chemical composition and fiber morphology of tobacco stem, scrap and dust

To assess the characteristics of raw materials for paper-making process reconstituted tobacco, the chemical composition and fiber morphology of stem, scrap and dust of tobacco of different growing years collected from Sichuan and Yunnan were analyzed with the raw material analyzing methods for pulp/paper-making and tobacco chemistry analysis methods. The results showed that: 1) The contents of holocellulose, nitric acid-ethanol cellulose, lignin and pentosan were much lower, while the contents of pectin, ash and extractives were significantly higher in tobacco stem and scrap than those in wheat straw and bagasse (raw material for paper-making). The contents of holocellulose, nitric acid-ethanol cellulose and lignin were higher in tobacco stem than in tobacco scrap, while the contents of benzene-ethanol extractive and pectin were higher in tobacco scrap than in stem. 2) The contents of total sugar, reducing sugar, potassium and chlorine were higher in tobacco stem than in tobacco scrap, while the contents of total nitrogen, total alkaloid, protein, starch and pectin were lower in tobacco stem. 3) The weight-average fiber length, width, ratio of length to width and non-fiber cell content of tobacco stem were 0.55 mm, 22.09 μm, 24.9 and 90.9%, respectively; while tobacco scrap and dust were almost composed of non-fiber cells entirely.