Determination of Various Benzoate Esters and p-Benzoate Esters Preservatives in Cosmetics by SPEGC-MS/MS

OBJECTIVE To establish a gas chromatography tandem mass spectrometry(GC-MS/MS) method for simultaneous separation and determination of eight preservatives including ethyl benzoate, isopropyl benzoate, propyl benzoate,phenyl benzoate, methyl 4-hydroxybenzoate, ethyl 4-hydroxybenzoate, butyl 4-hydroxybenzoate and propyl 4-hydroxybenzoate in cosmetics with three different matrix types(water agent, lotion and cream) by solid phase extraction.METHODS Samples were ultrasonically extracted by methanol, then purified by HLB solid phase extraction column. Samples were separated by VF-1301MS capillary column, and analyzed by multi-reaction monitoring(SIM) detection mode. Matrix matching calibration method was used for the quantification.RESULTS The results showed that the eight compounds had good linear relationship in their respective concentration range, the correlation coefficient was > 0.995, the detection limit was 0.079-3.15 mg·kg^-1, the quantitative limit was 0.26-10 mg·kg^-1, and the average recovery was 90.9%-104.2%, RSD was less than 10%, The method was used to test the samples.CONCLUSION The method is simple, accurate and sensitive. It can be used for the quantitative analysis of eight preservatives in commercial cosmetics.