A gas chromatography-mass spectrometry(GC-MS) with silanized derivatization was developed for the determination of major tobacco constituents in 21 cigarette samples of three brands.The obtained GC-MS fingerprint data were processed by cluster analysis and principal component analysis,respectively.Results showed that the method could be used in the comparison and discrimination on cigarettes of different brands,and the proportion distribution of various silanized components reflected fairly well the characteristics of different brands of cigarettes.The developed method could provide a reference for cigarette style characterization,quality maintenance and authenticity discrimination.