Abstract:

A method for the simultaneous determination of eleven coumarins （8-hydroxypsoralen, psoralen, 6-methylcoumarin, isopsoralen, 8-methoxypsoralen, 5-methoxypsoralen, bavachin, neobavaisoflavone, trioxsalen, imperatorin and isoimperatorin） in cosmetics by ultra high performance liquid chromatography verification by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry was established. The cosmetic samples were ultrasonically extracted with methanol for 20 min, centrifuged, and the supernatant was filtered through a microporous membrane for determination. An ACQUITY UPLC HSS T₃ chromatographic columns （2.1 mm×50 mm, 1.8 μm） was used for gradient elution at a flow rate of 0.3 mL/min with acetonitrile-water as the mobile phases. The wavelengths of detection were 246 and 278 nm. The column temperature was set at 30 ℃. The results of ultra high performance liquid chromatography were used for qualitative screening, the standard curve method was used for quantification, and the results of liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry were used for verification. The results show that the linear ranges of the eleven coumarins were 0.1-10 mg/L, and the correlation coefficients were all greater than 0.999 7. The detection limits are 0.1-0.6 mg/kg. The average recoveries are 95.3%-110.0% with RSDs of 0.4%-2.6% at low, medium and high spiked levels. The method is simple, rapid and accurate for the simultaneous determination of eleven coumarins in cosmetics.

Key words: cosmetics, ultra high performance liquid chromatography, liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, coumarins