Abstract: A method of determining on a discrete analyzer the nicotine content of tobacco or a smoking-related product by preparing an aqueous extract of a sample of tobacco or smoking-related product, pre-reacting the extract with an acidic buffered solution of pH not more than 6 for at least two minutes, reacting the pre-reacted extract in the discrete analyzer with aniline and cyanogen bromide, measuring the intensity of yellow coloration generated, and comparing said intensity with that produced by a nicotine standard to determine the nicotine content of said sample.

Abstract: A method of determining in a discrete analyzer the total sugars content of a tobacco sample containing sucrose, glucose and fructose, comprises the steps of, converting the sucrose to glucose and fructose, enzymatically converting the glucose and fructose to glucose-6-phosphate in the presence of hexokinase, reacting the glucose-6-phosphate with nicotinamide-adenine dinucleotide in the presence of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase to give reduced nicotinamide-adenine dinucleotide, the amount of reduced nicotinamide-adenine dinucleotide produced being directly proportional to the total sugars content of the sample, measuring the concentration of reduced nicotinamide-adenine dinucleotide in the sample, and generating a signal indicative of the concentration of reduced nicotinamide-adenine dinucleotide and hence of the total sugars content of the sample. Deactivation of enzymes by any cyanogen bromide that may be present is prevented by the addition of dithioerythritol to the reaction mixture.

Abstract: Inorganic constituents of cigarette paper are identified and monitored by scanning a region of the infra red spectrum of the paper, computing first and second order derivatives of the scan, comparing the first and second order derivatives by a best fit comparison with reference spectral data, and computing concentrations in the paper of the identified inorganic constituents.