Abstract
During curing of aromatic tobacco leaves, coloring temperatures were set at 26, 30, 34, 38 and $42^{\circ}C$, and also leaf drying temperatures were established at 35, 40, 45, 50, 55 and $60^{\circ}C$, respectively, to investigate the thermal effect on characteristics of cured leaves. Appearance of yellow color from green was accelerated, the contents of non-volatile organic and higher fatty acids in leaves tended to increase with the higher yellowing temperature. Quality by price per kg was best at 45-$50^{\circ}C$ and score of smoking test was highest at 40-$50^{\circ}C$ during leaf drying stage. The concentrations of non-volatile organic acids and volatile essential oil inclined to decrease, but a reverse in this trend with higher fatty acids as temperature increased during leaf drying stage. The difference of other components was discussed.