Simultaneous determination of 15 nitroimidazoles in cosmetics by HPLC coupled with electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry

Abstract

A sensitive and reliable analytical method based on HPLC/MS/MS has been developed for the simultaneous determination of 15 nitroimidazoles in cosmetics. A diversity of cosmetic samples, including powder, lotion, shampoo, and cream were collected. The samples were ultrasonically extracted with aqueous methanol, and the extracts were then subjected to cleanup by SPE using an Oasis HLB cartridge followed by filtration with a 0.20 μm membrane filter. Afterwards, chromatographic separation was performed on an XSelect CSH C18 column (2.1 × 150 mm, 3.5 μm) maintained at 30°C within 15 min by a gradient of acetonitrile-0.1% aqueous formic acid solution at a flow rate of 0.25 mL/min. The mass spectrometric detection was carried out using electrospray positive ionization under the multiple reaction monitoring mode. A good linearity was observed over the concentration range from 0.5 to 500 ng/mL. The intraday and interday precisions, which were investigated by determining all target compounds in cosmetics seven times/day and on 7 consecutive days, were below 5.00%. The mean recoveries at three spiked levels ranged from 80.42 to 100.83% with the RSDs from 0.45 to 9.02%. The LOQs were determined to be between 0.01 and 0.1 mg/kg. The method was sufficiently rapid, reliable, and sensitive for the determination of 15 nitroimidazoles in cosmetics.