Recently, many researches for plant alkaloids, one of the largest groups of natural products, are reported because of their various pharmacological activity. This study was carried out to clone putrescine N-methyltransferase (PMT) gene which is a key enzyme in diverting polyamine metabolism towards the biosynthesis of nicotine and related alkaloids from Burley tobacco. To induce expression of PMT gene in tobacco plant, the floral meristem was removed and then mRNA was purified from root. cDNA encoding PMT gene was isolated by RT PCR and cloned. Three different groups of clones were screened by PCR and restriction enzyme digestion analysis and were characterized. The data of these screening revealed that three types of PMT are present in Burley tobacco. Comparison of the nucleotide sequence of this three genes encoding putative PMT with those of other tobaccos revealed that two types of PMT are newly discovered from Nicotiana tabacum cv. Br21 tobacco and they were same as PMT2, PMT3 of N. tabacum cv. Xanthi.

To get the informations of quality uniformity of threshed burley tobacco produced from 1997 to 2001 and processed at various leaf processing factories, chemical constituents contents and coefficient of variation(C.V.) were analysed. The average chemical constituents contents of 12 grades during 5 years ranged as follows; nicotine 1.76～2.66%, total nitrogen 4.15～4.80%, crude ash 21.6～22.4% and chlorine 1.08～1.20%. The variations of chemical constituents contents among crop years was higher in nicotine while lower in crude ash. The nicotine content of upper leaves were influenced negatively by rainfalls, while total nitrogen content were influenced positively by air temperature and sunshine hours during July. The C.V. of chemical content in same grade was higher in chlorine and nicotine while lower in crude ash. The ratio of C.V. among leaf tobacco processing factories/C.V. of total sample in same grade was high in nicotine. To reduce the C.V. of chemical constituents, it is recommendable to thresh the leaf tobacco at one processing factory. When the leaves being processed at one factory, the decreasing effect of deviation was higher in nicotine, particularly.

This study was conducted to investigate the pyrolysis products of ι-menthol by Curie-Point pyrolysis. The pyrolysis of ι-menthol was performed at 16$0^{\circ}C$, 42$0^{\circ}C$, $650^{\circ}C$, and 92$0^{\circ}C$ by Curie-Point Pyrolyzer and their pyrolysis products were analyzed by GC/MSD. In addition, tobacco leaves added ι-menthol were pyrolyzed at the same condition in case of ι-menthol. The beginning temperature for pyrolysis formation was in the vicinity of 42$0^{\circ}C$ and the major components of the pyrolysis products identified were iso-menthol, 2-menthene, menthomenthene, and menthone. The amount of these components was increased by increasing temperature and the hydrocarbons such as hexadecene and pentadecene formed by ring cleavage were generated at 92$0^{\circ}C$. The yield of ι-menthol in pyrolysis of tobacco leaves was decreased as the temperature of pyrolysis was raised and the pyrolysis products of ι-menthol weren't identified in the pyrolysis of tobacco leaves. Also, to analyze the weight decrease, ι-menthol was analysed by thermal analyzer(TA), and then the weight decrease of ι-menthol was occurred in the vicinity of 18$0^{\circ}C$.

In this work, Rayon-based activated carbon fiber(KF-1500) was treated by HN $O_3$ and $H_2$S $O_4$ with different conditions. Specific surface areas(SSA, $S_{BET}$) of the treated activated carbon fibers were decreased by acidic treatment but, total surface acidities and surface functional groups were increased. In spite of the decrease of SSA, propylamin(PPA) adsorption and removal ability by activated carbon fiber(ACF) were increased by nitric acid treatment compared with the raw-ACF(KF-1500) and coconut based activated carbon. However, acidic treated activated carbon fibers were available to removal for various amines and contaminants by adsorption.n.

Cyclodextrin glucanotransferase (CGTase) from Bacillus stearothermophilus synthesized vanillin and ethyl vanillin monoglucoside, with a series of its maltooligoglucosides by transglycosylation with dextrin as a donor, and vanillin or ethyl vanillin as an acceptor. The monoglucoside formed from reaction mixture of vanillin or ethyl vanillin by the successive actions of CGTase and Rhizopus glucoamylase was isolated by extraction with n-butanol saturated with water and silica gel column chromatography. The structure of the isolated monoglucoside was identified as vanillin- $\alpha$ -D-glucoside and ethyl vanillin- $\alpha$ -D-glucoside, respectively, by FAB-MS, UV, IR, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR spectra and products by hydrolysis with acid, $\alpha$ - and $\beta$ -glucosidases.

Although tobacco smoke has been known to have genotoxicity as well as cytotoxicity, the sensitivity of the cell lines used against cigarette smoke is poorly understood. The objective of this study was to evaluate and compare the genotoxicity of several cell lines, which are routinely used in the in vitro assays, with cigarette smoke condensate(CSC) of Kentucky Reference Cigarette 1R4F. In the micronucleus(MN) induction assays, murine(CHO-K1, V79, BALB/c 3T3) cell lines and human(MCF-7, A549) ones were used. As a result, the CSC exhibited cytotoxicity with a concentration-dependent response in all cell lines. EC$_{50}$ of CSC in CHO-K1, V79, BALB/c 3T3, MCF-7 and A549 were 140, 125, 100, 116 and 109 $\mu\textrm{g}$/mL, respectively. On the other hand, the spontaneous micronucleated cell(MNC) frequency was stable and reproducible in every cell lines tested in this study. The dose-response of various cell lines to the induction of MN by CSC was estimated using linear regression analysis. CSC(0～100 $\mu\textrm{g}$/mL) caused a dose-dependent MN induction in CHO-K1, V79, BALB/c 3T3 and MCF-7 cell lines. Putting together all the data obtained and linear regression analysis of the data, we concluded that V79 cells are more susceptible to the accurate assessment of CSC-induced MN than the others.s.

Among the most popular means of mainstream smoke collection for specific analysis are solvent traps. Determination of the carbonyl compounds as their 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazones(DNPHs) by HPLC offers increased sensitivity and reproducibility in the analysis of mainstream cigarette smoke. In this work, the mainstream smoke of a reference cigarette(lR4F) was collected in four kinds of gas washing bottles and their effects on the analysis of carbonyl compounds were investigated. The results show that the porosity of fritted glass filter in gas washing bottles exerted profound effect on the composition of the carbonyl compounds in mainstream smoke.

This study was carried out to determine the relationship between smoke components and sensory evaluation by changes tobacco leaf blending. Seven different cigarettes were made by adding different types of oriental, reconstituted and expanded tobacco leaves. 62 kinds of smoke components which were 6 of general components, 34 of semi-volatile and volatile components, 9 of acid components, and 13 of phenolic components were analyzed. Eight kinds of sensory item were evaluated and also electronic nose system data was collected. All smoke components and sensory characteristics of mainstream smoke were changed by the different blending. To determine the relationship between smoke components and sensory test, the correlation and regression analysis were carried out by using SPSS statistical program. Tar, pH, and CO showed a high correlation with sensory evaluation item. As tar related to hotness, CO have a high correlation with offensive aroma. Semi-volatile and volatile components of smoke related to sensory characteristics such as aroma, taste, irritation, hotness and smoothness. When propylene, l,3-butadiene, butane, isoprene, and 2-methylfuran showed a high correlation with aroma; methyl chloride, methanol, toluene, ethyl benzene showed a high correlation with irritation. Some acidic components and phenolic components of smoke also had a high relation to smoke volume. Especially the acidic components such as 2-furoic acid, 2-hydroxybutyric acid, phenylacetic acid and palmitic acid; the phenolic components such as 4-vinyl phenol, pyrocatechol, 3-methyl catechol, hydroquinone showed a high correlation with smoke volume. As using regression analysis, it was possible to estimate the results of sensory evaluation from the smoke analysis data. From the results of electronic nose system analysis, we can find the different pattern by adding expanded tobacco leaf.

Using sucker agents for tobacco can lead some advantages including saving labor, increasing yield and reducing the spread of diseases. At present, the sucker control agents used in China mainly depended on importing. The agents includes two groups, systemics (Maleic hydrazide: MH, etc) and partial systemics (Butralin, Flumetralin, Pendimethalin, etc). Now, Pendimethalin(a.i. 33%, wp) was used extensively all over the tobacco field in China. Sucker control agents will also be used for tobacco production in China. Because of the high price of the imported agents, China has studied on the domestic production of tobacco sucker control agents and has made some progresses.

The majority of ι-menthol is still obtained by freezing the oil of Mentha arvensis to crystallize the menthol present. This 'natural' menthol is then physically seperated by centrifuging the supernatant liquid away from the menthol crystal. But the price of natural ι-menthol has fluctuated widely so effort has been devoted to the production of ι-menthol by synthetic more readily available raw materials. In the 1970's, many researcher synthesised a new compounds with the menthol cooling effect. During this period many molecular structure designed and synthesised on concepts of correlation between structure and biological activity and the various types of molecule which give rise to cooling effect more than ι-menthol. Specially, N-alkyl-carboxamide group is substituted for the hydroxyl group in ι-menthol. Recently, the most active compounds synthesised is 4-methyl-3-(1-pyrrolidinyl)-2-[5H]-furanone. This compound is 35 times more powerful in the mouth and 512 times more powerful on the skin than ι-menthol. The cooling effect also lasts twice as long. While not yet commercially available, it is expected that these types of materials will be subjected to toxicological studies and will soon be sell on the market.