Simultaneous Determination of Six Parabens in Cosmetics by a New High Performance Liquid Chromatography Method with Fluorescence Detection

In this study, a new high performance liquid chromatography method with fluorescence detection was developed and validated for the simultaneous determination of methyl paraben, ethyl paraben, propyl paraben, isopropyl paraben, butyl paraben and benzyl paraben in cosmetics, Separations were achieved using a C18 guard column (2.1 x10 mm, 3 mu m) and a C18 analytical column (2.1 x 150 mm, 3 pm), lsocratic elution was applied with a mobile phase consisting of 45% aqueous o-phosphoric acid solution (0.08%) and 55% methanol/water mixture (90:10 v/v). The excitation and the emission wavelengths were 254 and 310 nm, respectively. Column temperature was fixed at 40 C, The linear range was 0.50-10.00 mu g/mL for all of the parabens. Limits of detection and quantification were in the range of 0.29-0.32 mu g/mL and 0.88-0.97 mu g/mL, respectively. Precision and accuracy values were calculated by analysis results of standard solutions at 850, 2.50 and 10.00 mu g/mL. The developed and validated method was applied for simultaneous quantitative determination of six paraben species in cosmetic tonic and micellar water samples successfully.