Analysis of Mercury in Skin Lightening Cream by Microwave Plasma Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (MP-AES)

Hardoko I Qudus,Iis Holilah,Sutopo Hadi,Purwadi Purwadi

doi:10.3390/molecules26113130

Hardoko I Qudus, Iis Holilah + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules26113130

Copy DOI

Journal: Molecules	Publication Date: May 24, 2021
Citations: 4	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Lampung University

Abstract

This research aimed at developing an analysis method, which was optimized and validated to determine the content of mercury in skin lightening cream discovered in the market in Bandar Lampung, Indonesia, through the use of microwave plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (MP-AES). The optimization on the analysis method was conducted on pump rate, viewing position, and reductant concentration in order to obtain the highest mercury emission intensity, while the solution stability was optimized to know the stability of mercury in the solution. The result showed that the method developed had precision with a relative standard deviation of 2.67%, recovery value of 92.78%, and linearity with an r value of 0.993, respectively. The sensitivity of the instrument detection had a limit of analysis method detection and quantification of 0.59 and 1.98 µg/L, respectively. The results of the test of the lightening cream (8 of 16 samples) positively contained mercury in the range of 422.61–44,960.79 ng/g. Therefore the method of analysis developed may be used for routine analysis of chemicals in any cosmetics products.

Highlights

Cosmetics are materials intended for the use on the outer human body parts such as epidermis, hair, nail, lips, outside genital organs, teeth, and on mouth mucosa membrane, as they are used for cleaning up, perfuming, performance altering, and body smell fixing while protecting and accurately maintaining the body condition [1]
One of the cosmetics often used by women is skin lightening cream
Optimization was conducted for every measurement

Summary

Introduction

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. One of the cosmetics often used by women is skin lightening cream. Most of these products in the market use mercury as an added material [1,2,3,4,5,6]. This is due to the fact that mercury has the ability to whiten skin color within a relatively short time

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion