Determination of Four Parabens in Tobacco Sauce by Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography

Abstract

A new method utilizes ultra performance liquid chromatography followed by UV diode array detection is presented for the determination of four parabens (methylparaben, ethylparaben, propylparaben, butylparaben) in tobacco sauce. The four parabens were extracted from tobacco sauce samples with 50 % methanol solution (containing 0.1 % acetic acid) by high speed homogenization and the samples were filtered to remove particulate matter prior to analysis. The UPLC determination was performed using a waters ACQUITY UPLC^TM BEH C¹⁸ (2.1 × 50 mm, 1.7 μm) column and UV detection at 257 nm. The contents of four parabens in the sample were quantized by external standard method. The standard recoveries (three different concentrations of markers: 0.2, 0.4 and 0.8 mg) were ranged from 96.8-103.5 %. The relative standard derivation of overall intraday variations were less than 1.64 % and the relative standard derivation of interday variations were less than 2.23 %. Results showed this method is rapid and reliable and UPLC method provided a powerful tool for the analysis of parabens in tobacco sauce samples.