Issue 4, 2013

Development of an HPLC–MS/MS method for the simultaneous analysis of six kinds of parabens in food

Abstract

Parabens (the esters of 4-hydroxybenzoic acid) are widely used as preservatives in thousands of foods, cosmetics and pharmaceutical products. A high performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC–MS/MS) method was developed and validated for the quantification of six kinds of parabens in food. The method was shown to be quantitative for the methyl, ethyl, propyl, butyl, isopropyl and isobutyl esters of 4-hydroxybenzoic acid. Samples were extracted by acetonitrile and cleaned up by solid phase extraction columns of LC-C18. Analysis was carried out by HPLC–MS/MS in a 15 min run time using atmospheric pressure electrospray ionisation in the negative mode (ESI−) and multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) scanning. The calibration curve was linear over a range of 10–1000 μg L−1 for parabens, and the limit of quantification (LOQ) was 10 μg L−1. The recovery of the method was 84.5–108.8% and values for intraday and interday precision were between 1.16 and 9.21%. The method was successfully applied in the determination of parabens in food samples.

Graphical abstract: Development of an HPLC–MS/MS method for the simultaneous analysis of six kinds of parabens in food

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
08 Sep 2012
Accepted
26 Nov 2012
First published
28 Nov 2012

Anal. Methods, 2013,5, 1016-1023

Development of an HPLC–MS/MS method for the simultaneous analysis of six kinds of parabens in food

S. Cao, Z. Liu, L. Zhang, C. Xi, X. Li, G. Wang, R. Yuan and Z. Mu, Anal. Methods, 2013, 5, 1016 DOI: 10.1039/C2AY26283E

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements