ABSTRACT The formation of tobacco aroma is significantly influenced by extraction processes, and different process pathways have important regulatory effects on the composition and sensory characteristics of aroma components. In this study, HS‐SPME‐GC‐MS combined with odour activity value analysis, principal component analysis, and sensory evaluation was used to systematically compare the effects of water extraction with alcohol precipitation, alcohol extraction, and water extraction on the aroma components of two American flue‐cured tobacco raw materials, 18‐BF1M/0 and 18‐BF1M/E. The results showed that alcohol extraction significantly improved the coverage of aroma components, with the total number of components increasing by 79%–83% compared with water extraction ( p < 0.05). The extraction efficiencies of esters and pyrazines were 3.9–4.7 times and 8–10 times higher than those obtained by water extraction, respectively, indicating that alcohol extraction is more suitable for products requiring high aroma fullness and complexity. Water extraction with alcohol precipitation showed lower impurity levels and retained acidic and hydrophilic aroma characteristics, while water extraction selectively enriched water‐soluble components such as acetic acid and furfural. PCA and sensory evaluation indicated that the aroma profiles of the extracts were jointly affected by raw material type and extraction process: 18‐BF1M/0 was associated with floral and aldehyde/ketone‐related notes, whereas 18‐BF1M/E showed stronger ester, roasted, and nutty characteristics. A process–aroma relationship was established for key aroma components, indicating that alcohol extraction is suitable for complex floral or full‐bodied aroma profiles, while water extraction with alcohol precipitation and water extraction are more appropriate for light‐aroma products with sweet floral, roasted sweet, nutty, or acidic characteristics. These findings provide a quantitative basis for selecting extraction processes and improving the targeted regulation of tobacco extract aroma quality through characteristic marker identification and sensory correlation analysis.
He et al. (Sun,) studied this question.