Investigations on Reduction of TSNA in Burley Tobacco

Tobacco Specific Nitrosamines (TSNA) are identified as the major carcinogenic compounds in tobacco. In view of the increasing health consciousness, monitoring and reduction of this group of compounds is attracting attention of researchers all over the world today, more than ever before. Analysis of different types of tobacco produced under varying agro-ecological situations adopting different production practices in India has revealed that Burley tobacco in East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh has higher levels of TSNA (6-6 to 9.3 ppm). The investigations carried out for developing suitable techniques to reduce the levels of these compounds in Burley tobacco are presented. A significant reduction in TSNA ranging from 11.1 to 28.2% was observed due to removal of midrib and subsequent air-curing. Further, highly significant differences were observed in the levels of TSNA among the treatments due to foliar spray of manganese sulphate @ 0.20% on a 150-day old Burley tobacco field crop and a significant reduction (50.2%) in TSNA could be achieved after 30 days after spray. Similarly, exogenous application of ascorbic acid @ 0.25% on the harvested Burley tobacco green leaves and subsequent air-curing resulted in highly significant reduction (46.5%) in TSNA at 30 days after spray

Author(s): D. Padmavathy1, C.V. Narasimha Rao2 and Kaza Somasekhara Rao

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