Flavonoids are very important secondary metabolites for tobacco plants. They are also considered as important flavor precursors for cigarettes. A method of ultra-high perform-ance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry( UPLC-MS/MS)was established for the simultaneous determination of 12 flavonoids in tobacco leaves. The developed method deter-mined 10 more flavonoids compared to the traditional method. A solution of methanol-water-chloroform(5∶2∶2,v/v/v)was used to extract the flavonoids from tobacco leaves and remove the pigment. Instrument analysis using the UPLC-MS/MS was completed in 13 min. The method validation was performed,and the results showed that the linear correlation coefficients(r2)of all the 12 flavonoids were more than 0. 99. The limits of detection and the limits of quantifica-tion were in the range of 0. 3-100 μg/L and 1. 2-400 μg/L,respectively. Intra-day and Inter-day reproducibilities were in the range of 3. 5%-7. 4% and 5. 2%-11. 4%,respectively. The recoveries were 81. 2%-111. 9%. The established method was successfully used to analyze the flavonoids of tobacco leaves of 11 varieties. Significant concentration differences of the flavonoids were found among the determined varieties. Furthermore,significant positive corre-lation among the flavonoids with similar chemical structures( aglycones and their related glyco-sides,glycosides with the same aglycone,and similar aglycones)was found using the acquired data.%类黄酮物质是烟草非常重要的次生代谢物。本研究建立了一种烟叶中12种类黄酮物质的定量分析方法，相对于传统方法增加了10种类黄酮物质的定量分析。采用甲醇-水-氯仿（5∶2∶2，v／v／v）对类黄酮物质进行提取和色素剔除，采用超高效液相色谱-串联质谱进行分析，整个仪器分析时间为13 min。该方法对所有被测类黄酮物质的线性相关系数（ r2）均高于0.99，检出限在0.3～100μg／L 之间，定量限在1.2～400μg／L 之间，日内重复性在3.5％～7.4％之间，日间重复性在5.2％～11.4％之间，回收率在81.2％～111.9％之间，符合定量分析要求。将该方法应用于11种不同品种烟草的类黄酮物质检测，发现不同烟草之间的类黄酮物质含量相差很大，而结构相似的类黄酮物质在烟叶中的含量分布存在显著的正相关关系。
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