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What it is

Absolutes are concentrated, highly aromatic, oily mixtures extracted from plants. They are similar to essential oils but have a higher concentration, up to 80-90% of aromatic substances, and lower volatility. Tobacco absolute is one of the valuable and expensive fragrance and flavor ingredients.

The plant

Nicotiana tabacum is an annual plant that grows 1 to 3 metres high and is sticky haired on all parts. It is believed to be a hybrid of Nicotiana sylvestris, N. tomentosiformis and possibly N. otophora. Turkish tobacco, also called oriental, is a sun-cured, highly aromatic, small-leafed variety of the species grown in Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria and North Macedonia.

Curing and aroma

After tobacco is harvested, it is cured (dried), and then aged to improve its flavor. There are four common methods of curing tobacco: air curing, fire curing, flue curing and sun curing. Cigar and burley tobaccos are air-cured. In fire curing, smoke from a low-burning fire on the barn floor permeates the leaves, which gives them a distinctive smoky aroma and flavor. Virginia tobacco that has been flue-cured is also called bright tobacco, because flue curing turns its leaves gold, orange or yellow. Sun curing is used in Greece, Turkey and other Mediterranean countries to produce oriental tobacco. Air curing takes six to eight weeks and fire curing three to ten weeks, while flue curing is the fastest method, at about a week. The hands or bales are aged for one to three years to improve flavor and reduce bitterness. Curing and subsequent aging allow the slow oxidation and degradation of carotenoids in tobacco leaf, which gives a sweet hay, tea, rose oil or fruity aromatic flavor.

Chemistry

Tobacco aroma is due to the presence of different volatile compounds, and megastigmatrienone is the key flavor compound in tobacco. Megastigmatrienone emits tobacco-like aromas. Degradation products of tobacco terpenoids, including β-ionone, geranylacetone, solanone and solanofuran, produce compounds with distinct and pleasant aromas. β-Damascenone, which is derived from the degradation of carotenoids, has an aroma described as apple, rose, honey, tobacco, sweet. In a study of Bulgarian tobaccos, ionone and its derivatives were not identified in the concrete, the resinoid or the commercial absolute, apart from 3-oxo-α-ionol and 3-oxo-7,8-dihydro-α-ionol in the absolute. Abienol, a labdane-related diterpenoid, is a precursor of amber-like compounds that form during leaf curing. Tobacco leaves contain 2-to-8% nicotine combined as malate or citrate, and nicotine accounts for 90-95% of the plant's pyridines.

Essential oils of tobacco

The oil of flue-cured Virginia tobacco has a very intense, balsamic, woody odor with earthy undertones, the oil of Burley a mild woody odor with balsamic and floral-like undertones, and the oil of Oriental tobacco a very green odor with slightly smoky, mossy and honey-like undertones.

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