Determination of routine chemicals, physical indices and macromolecular substances in reconstituted tobacco using near infrared spectroscopy combined with sample set partitioning

Near infrared spectroscopy coupled with sample set partitioning based on joint X-Y distances combined with partial least square regression was applied to the quantitative analysis of six routine chemicals, five physical indices and four macromolecular substances in reconstituted tobacco. The quantitative regression models of these indices were established by joint X-Y distances combined with partial least square regression. Results showed remarkable correlation between predicted and measured values of the 15 indices. The root mean square error of prediction of all the indices was low, and the correlation coefficients of these PLS models were all greater than 0.85. This was the first study in which NIR spectroscopy had been used to determine the macromolecular substances as well as certain physical indices in reconstituted tobacco. Results showed that this method could be feasibly applied for rapid detection of these properties of industrial products.