Chemical Studies on Tobacco Smoke: I. The Quantitative Determination of Indoles in Cigarette Smoke

A method for the quantitative determination of indole and alkylated indoles in cigarette smoke is described. The analysis consists of distributions between n-hexane / methanol-water (4:1); n-hexane / methanol-water (1:2); column chromatography on Florosil and gas chromatographic separation on 20 % Apiezon L at 155°C. Quantitative data are secured by use of C14-labelled indole as internal standard. In the smoke of an 85 mm blended United States cigarette without filter tip were determined 13.9 µg indole, 14.0 µg skatole, 4.2 µg 3-ethylindole, and 0.21 µg 3-n-propylindole. The presence of an admixture of dimethylindoles was tentatively established; their concentration was below 0.03 µg per cigarette