Effects Of Different Temperature And Moisture In Warehouse On The Quality Of Flue-cured Tobacco During Ageing Process

The quality of flue-cured tobacco can be enhanced during routine warehousing. The keyfactors that cause the quality changes are temperature and humidity. In this article, westudied the different fermentation effects induced by three temperature-humiditycombinations. With low temperature (28℃) and high humidity (80%) combination, thewater content of lamina was the highest, while it was the lowest under high temperatureand low humidity. The content of reducing sugar, total sugar, total nitrogen, nicotine,volatile alkali, polyphenol and pH in lamina decreased during fermentation, especiallyunder low temperature and high humidity. On the contrary，the petroleum ether extract andtotal volatile acid increased during fermentation, especially under low temperature andhigh humidity. Although the condition of high temperature and high humidity (35℃80%)was most beneficial for the fermentation of tobacco, the color of tobacco went dark brownwhich was no longer fit for the production of high quality cigarettes. With28℃and80%moisture combination, the high water content of lamina made it riskier for warehousing,because the surface of lamina became mildewing. Thus high temperature and low humidity(35℃70%) became the optimal condition for fermentation, not only because of the lowerwater content, but also of the quicker matter transformation in lamina and the speeding upof aging process.