Abstract: In order to enhance the tobacco aroma of heated cigarettes, the effect of heating pretreatment of tobacco powder on the quality of heated cigarettes was investigated. With the formulated tobacco powder as experimental material, the heating pretreatment was carried out by controlling the heating temperature and time. The conventional chemical composition of pretreated tobacco powder was analyzed, then the heated pretreated powder was made into heated cigarette flakes, and the composition of pyrolysis aerosol was analyzed. Finally the flakes were made into heated cigarettes for sensory evaluation. Results showed that the heating pretreatment could significantly increase (p≤0.05) the total sugar and reducing sugar content, while decrease the starch content of tobacco powder under certain conditions of heating temperature and heating time, also significantly increase (p≤0.05) the content of aroma components including furans, aldehydes and ketones, acids, and phenolics in the thermally lysed aerosol of heated cigarette flakes. The heating pretreatment could significantly enhance (p≤0.05) the sensory quality of heated cigarettes such as aroma and smoke. In this experiment, the preferred pretreatment conditions were heating temperature of 115 ℃ and heating time of 20 minutes.