Potassium (K) plays important roles in the energy and
substance
conversion of tobacco metabolism and is also regarded as one of the
important indicators of tobacco quality evaluation. However, the K
quantitative analytical method shows poor performance in terms of
being easy-to-use, cost-effective, and portable. Here, we developed
a rapid and simple method for the determination of K content in flue-cured
tobacco leaves, including water extraction with 100 °C heating,
purification with solid-phase extraction (SPE), and analysis with
portable reflectometric spectroscopy based on K test strips. The method
development consisted of optimization of the extraction and test strip
reaction conditions, screening of SPE sorbent materials, and evaluation
of the matrix effect. Under the optimum conditions, good linearity
was observed in 0.20–0.90 mg/mL with a correlation coefficient
>0.999. The extraction recoveries were found to be in the range
of
98.0–99.5% with a repeatability and reproducibility of 1.15–1.98%
and 2.04–3.26%, respectively. The sample measured range was
calculated to be 0.76–3.68% K. Excellent agreement was found
in accuracy between the developed reflectometric spectroscopy method
and the standard method. The developed method was applied to analyze
the K content in different cultivars, and the content varied greatly
among the samples with lowest and highest contents for Y28 and Guiyan
5 cultivars, respectively. This study can provide a reliable approach
for K analysis, which may become available on-site in a quick on-farm
test.