Abstract: To compare a high performance liquid chromatography with the diode array detector (HPLC-DAD) method and a gas chromatograph with the flame ionization detector (GC-FID) method for the determination of 6-methyl coumarin in cosmetics.Positive samples were confirmed by GC-MS.Methanol was used to extract 6-methyl coumarin from cosmetics,and the chromatographic conditions of the two methods were optimized.Samples were measured and the recoveries,precisions,correlation coefficients,detection limits,and quantitative limits of the two methods were compared.Results show that both of the two methods have good linear relationships in the range of their respective mass concentration.The recoveries of HPLC-DAD is between 92.20% to 102.80%,the RSD is between 0.77% to 2.00%,the detection limit is 0.05 mg/kg and the quantitative limit is 0.17 mg/kg.The recoveries of GC-FID is between 97.30% to 103.28%,the RSD is between 0.47% to 4.87%,the detection limit is 1.3 mg/kg and the quantitative limit is 5.0 mg/kg.HPLC-DAD method has a lower detection limit and higher sensitivity than GC-FID method,and has more advantages in determining low-content samples.

Key words: additive of cosmetics, HPLC-DAD method, GC-FID method, 6-methyl coumarin