Abstract:

A method for the determination of ectoine in cosmetics by high performance liquid chromatography （HPLC） was established. Agilent Poroshell 120 EC-C₁₈ column （100 mm×3.0 mm, 2.7 μm）was used for sample analysis. Methanol and 40 mmol/L sodium dihydrogen phosphate-10 mmol/L sodium 1-heptanesulfonate solution （adjusted pH to 3.0 by phoshporic acid） were used as mobile phases for gradient elution, with a flow rate of 0.8 mL/min. The temperature of the column was 30 ℃. Samples were quantitated by diode array detector at 210 nm with external standard method. Result shows that the standard working curve of ectoine has good linear relationship in the range of 5-800 mg/L. The limit of detection and quantitation is 0.3 and 1.0 mg/L, respectively. The method has the advantages of high separation efficiency, short analysis time, and solvent cost saving. It solves the problem of ectoine retaining on C₁₈ chromatography column.

Key words: high performance liquid chromatography （HPLC）, ectoine, cosmetics