Abstract: Influence of β-arbutin on the determination of hydroquinone containing in cosmetics by GC-MS was studied.Results showed that β-arbutin is unstable at high temperature,and will decompose and release out hydroquinone under the GC-MS detection conditions.The extent of the thermal decomposition will be obviously enhanced with the increase of temperature at sample inlet of the GC-MS system.Consequently,the detection result of cosmetics containing β-arbutin by GC-MS method will display a higher data for hydroquinone content than the actual result or a false positive test result of hydroquinone.Therefore,GC-MS method is not suitable to be adopted to confirm the positive result for hydroquinone content in cosmetics formulated with β-arbutin which has been assayed by HPLC-DAD.

Key words: whitening cosmetics, β-arbutin, hydroquinone, GC-MS