Abstract: A reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) method for the determination of ceramides in cosmetics was established.The sample was analyzed on a SHIMADZU Shim-pack VP-C₁₈ODS (150 mm×4.6 mm,5 μm) with C₁₈ODS guard column core and UV detector.Operating conditions were:mobile phase consisted of V(methanol)∶V(isopanol)=55∶45 at a flow rate of 1.0 mL·min^-1;column temperature 30 ℃;wavelength of the UV detector 205 nm;detection cell temperature 40 ℃.Results showed that as the mass concentration of ceramide is in the range of 0-5 g·L^-1,the relationship between mass concentration and the corresponding peak area shows good linearity (r=0.991 4).The regression equation can be expressed as A=1 466 341ρ and the recovery achieves 96.5%-101.2%.

Key words: additive of cosmetics, ceramide, high performance liquid chromatography