GC-MS Phytochemical Analysis of Smokeless Tobacco (SNUFF) Used in Port Harcourt

Abstract

Smokeless tobacco (snuff) is consumed in different forms and may contain chemically diverse constituents that vary with source, processing and additives. This preliminary study characterised the phytochemical profile of an aqueous extract of a commercially available snuff sample obtained from Mile 3 Market, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria. Forty grams of ground snuff was extracted with 400 mL of distilled water for 48 h, filtered and concentrated in a water bath at 60°C. The extract was further processed and analysed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS), and tentative compound identification was based on comparison of acquired mass spectra with the National Institute of Standards and Technology spectral library. The analysis detected 20 major chromatographic peaks between retention times of 3.149 and 16.804 min. Reported constituents included nicotine- and anabasine-related pyridine derivatives, long-chain hydrocarbons and alcohols, fluorinated esters, organosilicon derivatives, phenolic compounds and a low-abundance arsenous acid ester. The highest reported relative abundance was for hexacosyl trifluoroacetate (17.17%), followed by 1-heptacosanol/pentadecafluorooctanoic acid ester (13.30%), 17-pentatriacontene (13.29%) and a nicotine-related pyridine derivative (10.86%). Alkaloid and hydrocarbon fractions were prominent in the analysed extract. Because the study examined a single sample and compound assignments were based on spectral library matching, the findings should be regarded as preliminary and as representative of the analysed extract under the applied conditions rather than of all snuff products used in Port Harcourt.