Determination of parabens in human milk and other food samples by capillary electrophoresis after dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction with back-extraction

Abstract

Dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction (DLLME) with back-extraction was used prior to capillary electrophoresis (CE) for the extraction of four parabens. Optimum extraction conditions were: 200μL chloroform (extraction solvent), 1.0mL acetonitrile (disperser solvent) and 1min extraction time. Back-extraction of parabens from chloroform into a 50mM sodium hydroxide solution within 10s facilitated their direct injection into CE. The analytes were separated at 12°C and 25kV with a background electrolyte of 25mM borate buffer containing 5.0% (v/v) acetonitrile. Enrichment factors were in the range of 4.3–10.7 and limits of detection ranged from 0.1 to 0.2μgmL−1. Calibration graphs showed good linearity with coefficients of determination (R2) higher than 0.9957 and relative standard deviations (%RSDs) lower than 3.5%. DLLME–CE was demonstrated to be a simple and rapid method for the determination of parabens in human milk and food with relative recoveries in the range of 86.7–103.3%.