ABSTRACT
Assessment of the chronology of the number of ethers identified in tobacco and tobacco smoke provides another excellent example of the effect of the advancements in analytical technology on our ability to identify components in a complex mixture. In his 1954 review of the components identified to that date in tobacco smoke, Kosak (2170) lists only two ethers, 2-furancarboxaldehyde (furfural) and 1,6-anhydro-β-Dglucopyranose (levoglucosan). Johnstone and Plimmer (1971) did not list ethers as a specific class of components in tobacco or tobacco smoke but did mention the identification of several under different headings in their 1959 review, for example, furan, 2-methylfuran, 2-furancarboxaldehyde (furfural) and two of its derivatives, 3,4-dihydro-2,5,7,8-tetramethyl-2-(4,8, 12-trimethyltridecyl)-2H-1-benzopyran-6-ol (α-tocopherol) and 3,4-dihydro-2,7,8-trimethyl-2-(4,8,12,16,20,24,28,32-octamethyl-3,7,11,15,19,23,27,31-tritriacontaoctaenyl)-2H-1-benzopyran-6-ol (solanachromene), the monosaccharides glucose and fructose, the disaccharide sucrose, the trisaccharides raffinose and planteose, and the tetrasaccharide stachyose. Overall, fewer than thirty ethers are listed by Johnstone and Plimmer (1971).
