Abstract
To investigate the effects of reduction of leaf processing factories on the uniformity of processed leaf quality, the contents and their C.V.(Coefficient of Variation) of chemical constituents of flue-cured leaf tobacco produced from 1997 to 2001 and processed at various factories were analysed. The average leaf chemical contents of 12 grades for 5 years ranged as follows ; nicotine 2.00∼0.85%. total sugar 10.7∼16.9%, total nitrogen 2.36∼2.78%, crude ash 14.6∼15.6% and chlorine 0.50∼0.75%. The variations of chemical contents among crop years was higher in total sugar content while lower in crude ash content. The C.V. of chemical content in same grade leaves was higher in chlorine content while lower in total nitrogen and crude ash contents, and the ratio of C.V. among processing factories/C.V. in total population was higher in total sugar content while lower in crude ash content. When the leaves were processed at one factory, the deviations of chemical contents reduced considerably. Particularly, the decreasing effect of deviation was higher in total sugar content.