POLYCYCLIC HYDROCARBONS FROM CIGARETTE SMOKE CONDENSATE - A METHOD OF FRACTIONATING LARGE AMOUNTS FOR ANIMAL EXPERIMENTS

A procedure for the fractionation of tobacco smoke condensate (for 100 g), well-suited for the production of aliquots for animal experiments, is described. The separation into fractions is obtained by the phase pairs, cyclohexane-methanol-water and nitromethane-cyclohexane, as well as by column chromatography with silica gel. pH shifts and high temperature influences are avoided. The amount of various constituents of smoke in the individual fractions is investigated. More than 85% of the phenanthrene, anthracene, pyrene, fluoranthene, benz(a)anthracene, chrysene, benz(e)pyrene, benz(a)pyrene, perylene, anthracene, benz(ghi)perylene, dibenz(a,h)-anthracene and coronene are concentrated in a fraction which accounts for only 1.1% of the total condensate. 94% of the nicotine alkaloides and 84% of the phenols are concentrated in another fraction. By the separation procedure described it is possible to obtain a fraction from cigarette smoke condensate which accounts for only 1.1% of the whole condensate, which is free of nicotine alkaloides and phenols and which contains nearly all polycyclic hydrocarbons present in cigarette smoke. © 1968 Springer-Verlag.