Determination Of Formaldehyde In Cosmetics Research Articles

Determination of formaldehyde in cosmetics by HPLC method and acetylacetone method

This paper describes an assay method to determine free formaldehyde in cosmetics using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), with a pre-column derivation with 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine. The derivatives were analyzed using a RP8 column with 45% acetonitrile solution as mobile phase and detected at the wavelength of 345 nm. The detection limit of derived formaldehyde in this HPLC system was 0.2 ppm. Compared with the amounts of formaldehyde analyzed from the 0.2% formaldehyde donors, the results obtained by acetylacetone method were 1.62∼17.35 times higher than that of HPLC method. One hundred cosmetic products purchased during 1995-1996 were investigated. None of those products was labeled formaldehyde. The results showed that 53% of the samples were formaldehyde positive. The amounts of total free formaldehyde were between 3∼165 ppm. All of them were less than 1000 ppm.

Development and Validation of Colorimetric and RP-HPLC Methods for the Determination of Formaldehyde in Cosmetics

Aims: To develop and validate two assay methods for the determination of total and free formaldehyde content in cosmetics by Colorimetric and High Performance Liquid Chromatographic (HPLC) methods, respectively. Study Design: Colorimetric and HPLC methods. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Dhaka, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh; between February 2012 and June 2013. Short Research Article Rahman et al.; ACSj, 5(3): 224-237, 2015; Article no.ACSj.2015.022 225 Methodology: In Colorimetric method the quantitation was performed by a UV/Vis spectrophotometer at 410 nm and by HPLC at 345 nm and the methods were linear over the concentration ranges of 4-12 mg/L (R 2 =0.999) and 2-32 mg/L (R 2 =0.999), respectively. Based on 2, 4-dinitrophenylhydrazine (DNPH) derivatization, free formaldehyde was analyzed using a Phenomenex C18 (250 mm × 4.6 mm i. d., 5 μm particle size) column in a binary separation mode with mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile and distilled water (45:55, v/v) and flow rate of 2.0 mL/min. Results: The overall recovery rate of free formaldehyde was (95.33-98.37)±(0.29-1.6)% (RSD). Seventy five cosmetics of local and foreign brands were investigated. None of those products was labeled to contain formaldehyde. 18 products were labeled with specific formaldehyde donors (17 with DMDM hydantoin and 1 with imidazolidinyl urea). 64% of the products were formaldehyde positive among which 54% exceeded 0.05% limit of formaldehyde content for which EU dictates the mandatory formaldehyde donors labeling. The investigated amounts of the total formaldehyde and free formaldehyde were 190-5502 mg/L and 47-604 mg/L, respectively. Conclusion: The methods were found valid as per in terms of suitability, linearity, accuracy, sensitivity, ruggedness, and robustness. The formaldehyde content found in the cosmetics was highly alarming and must be addressed by the authority in an immediate basis.

Quantitative determination of formaldehyde in cosmetics using combined headspace-solid-phase microextraction chromatography

The objective of this research was the application of headspace (HS)-solid-phase microextraction (SPME) for the quantitation of formaldehyde present in raw materials and cosmetic formulations. The formaldehyde was derivatized in situ first with pentafluorophenylhydrazine (PFPH), to form a derivative hydrazone. The formed hydrozone was adsorbed on a SPME fiber during headspace extraction under controlled conditions (time, temperature, volume, etc.). After the adsorption step, the SPME fiber was directly transferred into the gas chromatography (GC) injection port in which the analytes were thermally desorbed. Deuterated acetone was used as an internal standard (IS) in order to quantitate the formaldehyde content. For the experiment, a gas chromatograph equipped with a flame ionization detector (GC/FID) was employed. A gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer (GC/MS) was used for the qualitative confirmation of results in this work.

Quantitative determination of formaldehyde in cosmetics using a combined solid-phase microextraction–isotope dilution mass spectrometry method

Solid-phase microextraction (SPME) in conjunction with isotope dilution mass spectrometry (ID-MS) was employed for the analysis of formaldehyde in cosmetic products. The formaldehyde is derivatized in situ with pentafluorophenyl hydrazine. The formed hydrazone is adsorbed over a poly(dimethylsiloxane)–divinylbenzene-coated fiber and analyzed using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. The adsorption–time profiles and salting effect were studied. The quantitation was performed by using a stable isotope labeled analogue as an internal standard. The precision, recovery and detection limits were determined with spiked samples. The relative standard deviations from different spiked cosmetic samples were all less than 10% and the recoveries were between 89.00 and 101.23%. The limit of detection was of 0.39 μg/l. Compared with other techniques, the study shown here provides a simple, fast and reliable method for the analysis of formaldehyde in cosmetic products.

High-performance liquid chromatographic determination of free formaldehyde in cosmetics

An improved, sensitive method for the determination of formaldehyde in cosmetics and other commercial products is reported. The procedure is based on dilution of the sample with tetrahydrofuran-water (9:1), followed by precolumn derivatization with 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine and direct reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography. The formaldehyde derivative is stabilized in the reaction medium by addition of phosphate buffer and neutralization and detected in less than 10 min by the standard additions method. The method also appears to be suitable for the direct evaluation of the formaldehyde donors used in cosmetics as preservatives.