Abstract:A pretreatment method via aqueous ammonia was used before the extraction of solanesol from tobacco leaves. The result of component analysis for tovacco leaves demonstrated that the pretreatment is necessary, and HPLC, MS and SEM analysis illustrated that the positive effect of pretreatment was obvious. The ammonia leaching could dissolve lignin, destroy the cell wall of tobacco, release the solanesol, change the solanesyl ester into solanesol, and dissolve some of the impurities, thereby significantly ehanced the extraction of solanesol and simplified the subsequent purification process. After ammonia pretreatment, the equilibrium time of extraction shortened from 3h to 1.5h, the extraction yield was increased from 89.24% to 104.63%, and the purity of extract increased from 16.72% to 21.03%.