Interference-free analysis of multi-class preservatives in cosmetic products using alternating trilinear decomposition modeling of liquid chromatography diode array detection data

In this work, a simple and effective strategy was proposed based on the combination of liquid chromatography diode array detection (HPLC-DAD) with second-order calibration method for fast and simultaneous determination of twelve preservatives in a variety of cosmetic products. The twelve preservatives were completely eluted out within 10.5 min under a simple sample preparation step. The proposed method shows second-order advantage, which enables one to accurately quantify the twelve preservatives in complex cosmetics in the presence of co-eluting chromatographic peaks and diverse unknown interferences. As a result, the consumption of organic solvents was markedly reduced and analysis time was greatly shortened. All target analytes showed good linearity in the calibration range with root-mean-square error of calibration (RMSEC) less than 0.84. The average spiked recoveries for all target analytes were in the range of 93.9%-110.5% with standard deviations less than 9.3%. In addition, analytical figures of merit were calculated to validate the performance of the proposed method. All these results demonstrated that the developed strategy was fast, green and accurate. Consequently, it could be used as an attractive alternative for the determination of multiple preservatives in complex cosmetic samples.

Automated summary

The proposed strategy in this study combines HPLC-DAD with a second-order calibration method for fast and simultaneous determination of twelve preservatives in cosmetic products. The method shows good accuracy, green characteristics, and reduced solvent consumption, making it an attractive alternative for multiple preservatives determination in complex cosmetic samples.