Identification of components responsible for the odor of cigar smoker's breath.

Following smoking 1/2 of a cigar, the most odorous cigar tobacco smoke components extracted from the surface of the tongue by nylon-meshed swabs and then extracted from the swab headspace by solid phase microextraction were ethyl pyrrole, 2,3-dimethyl pyrazine, and 2-ethyl pyridine. Similar classes of compounds were identified from the headspace of an aqueous simulated saliva solution treated with cigar smoke. The most odorous compounds were 2,3,5-trimethyl pyridine, 2,5-dimethyl pyrazine, and 2-ethyl-3,5-dimethyl pyridine. Pyridines and pyrazines, the most prominent classes of odorous compounds identified in this experiment, may be generated during cigar pyrrolysis by cleavage of nicotine or by Maillard reaction.