Abstract: An analysis method was established for determination of α-,β-arbutin in cosmetics by normal phase high performance liquid chromatography. The separation was performed on an S-Chiral A column (250 mm×4.6 mm,5 μm) with n-hexane-ethanol (volume ratio 70∶30) as the mobile phase at a flow rate of 0.8 mL/min. The detection wavelength was 226 nm. Operating temperature was 30 ℃. The limit of detection of α-,β-arbutin are 1.5 and 3.6 ng respectively,and the limit of quantification are 1.6 and 6.3 ng respectively. A good linear relationship is obtained between the peak area and the mass concentration of α-,β-arbutin in the range of 10~500 mg/L and the correlation coefficient are 1.000 0 and 0.999 0 respectively. The recoveries of α-,β-arbutin at different spiked level are 99.61%~103.36% with the relative standard deviations (RSD) no more than 0.80%.

Key words: cosmetics, normal phase high performance liquid chromatography, α-arbutin, β-arbutin, determination