Nitrogen-containing compounds are one important class of constituents in tobacco because of variouspharmacological and biological properties. Three types of tobacco leaves (burley, bright, and oriental)were studied using solid-state
15N NMR cross polarization with magic-angle spinning, dipolar dephasingand five
replicated magic angle turning (FIREMAT) experiments. The results show that burleytobacco leaves contain significantly more pyridinic nitrogen than that of bright or oriental tobaccoleaves. The principal values of
15N chemical shift tensors of nitrogen functional groups were obtainedfrom the FIREMAT data. Possible assignments of solid-state
15N NMR resonances were made usingnitrogen chemical shift tensors in some model compounds or isotropic chemical shift values fromliquid NMR results. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first solid-state
15N NMR study of tobaccoplant material.Keywords: Solid-state
15N NMR; tobacco leaves; nitrogen compounds; FIREMAT