Development and Validation of GC-FID Method for Quantification of Parabens from Cosmetic Creams Using the Dispersive Liquid-Liquid Microextraction Based on Solidification of a Floating Organic Drop Technique

Parabens are commonly used as preservatives in numerous personal care products and foods to prevent the growth of microorganisms. Parabens play vital role as antimicrobial, preservative, and flavoring agents hence are often used in cosmetic, pharmaceutical and flavor products. The high concentrations of parabens can cause sever health issues, hence the methyl and propyl paraben levels in cosmetics are restricted and all other parabens banned. Thus, a simple, rapid, and ecofriendly dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction method based on solidification of a floating organic drop (DLLME-SFO) technique has been developed for the extraction of methyl and propyl parabens from cosmetic cream. The separation and quantification of these parabens are performed using gas chromatographic flame ionization detector method. The extraction solvent, dispersive solvent, solvent volumes, diluent, gas chromatography (GC) column and carrier gas are optimized. The method is validated according to the ICH guideline for specificity, precision, recovery, linearity, and limit of detection. This method achieves accuracy of 100.727% (±0.002%) and 98.713% (±0.003%) for methyl and propyl paraben, respectively. The present method is simple, rapid and accurate for quantification of parabens hence valuable, reliable, and very suitable to be applied in routine quality control laboratories.