Studies on Three-Stage Counter Current Extraction of Tobacco Stem and Tobacco Dust

Tobacco stem and tobacco dust are the major raw materials in the reconstituted tobacco production. The extraction of the components from these materials is one of the most important procedures in making the reconstituted tobacco sheet. In this paper, we reported an approach of three-stage counter current extraction to transfer the components from tobacco stem and tobacco dust. The results showed that the extraction ratios for tobacco stem and tobacco dust were 40.2% and 54.2%, respectively. The testing results on the extracted tobacco stem and tobacco dust showed that the overall extraction ratios of water soluble sugars, total alkaloid, and chloride in tobacco dust were 89.3%, 90.5% and 100%, respectively; and the overall extraction ratios of water soluble sugars, total alkaloid and chloride in tobacco stem were 59.3%, 60.3% and 76.2%, respectively; The contents of total nitrogen in tobacco dust and tobacco stem were basically no change after each extraction. Lower extraction yield and higher extraction ration were obtain by three stages extract than those by single stage extract.