Abstract: A pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry （Py-GC/MS） method was developed to obtain the fingerprint of tobacco materials, the tobacco material ingredients of 6 domestic and foreign brands of heat-not-burn cigarettes and 3 domestic brands of traditional cigarettes were determined. The similarity value of Py-GC/MS fingerprint data of tobacco materials was calculated, and the cluster analysis method was used to evaluate the composition differences of tobacco materials. The results showed that a total of 32 common peaks were screened from HNB and TC fingerprints obtained by Py-GC/MS. Among which, the compounds with higher content of HNB than that of TC were glyceryl acetate and glycerol, while the compounds with higher content of TC were mainly the pyrolysis products of carbohydrate; The pyrolysis product fingerprints of HNB and TC had a low similarity value （0.304~0.703）, while the fingerprints between HNB and between TC had a high similarity value, which were 0.878~0.999 and 0.986~0.998, respectively; Through cluster pattern recognition, TC and HNB tobacco materials were completely divided into two categories, and HNB tobacco materials were further divided into two categories according to obvious differences in preparation process. This study results can provide a basis for the discrimination of different tobacco materials.

Key words: heat-not-burn cigarette, traditional cigarette, Py-GC/MS, fingerprint, cluster analysis