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Simultaneous Determination of 37 Anti-infective Drugs Potentially Illegally Added to Cosmetics that Claimed to have Anti-acne Effects by UHPLC-Q-TOF HRMS

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Abstract

Currently, illegal addition of anti-infective drugs has been detected in some cosmetics to achieve rapid sterilization and anti-inflammatory effects. However, the abuse of anti-infective drugs may endanger the health of citizens. Thus, methods for the detection and quantitative determinations of such substances should be developed. In this paper, a method combining ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-Q-TOF HRMS) was designed. Its significance and potential were verified by the identification, confirmation, and quantification of 37 illegally added anti-infective drugs in cosmetics that claimed to have anti-acne effects. The method validation revealed a satisfactory linear relationship, and each coefficient of determination (r2) was higher than 0.9943. The LOD and LLOQ results were in the ranges of 0.0003–0.1063 μg g−1 and 0.0012–0.3545 μg g−1, respectively. The accuracy ranged from 70.8 to 122.8%, whereas the intra- and inter-day precisions were in the ranges of 0.2–12.8% and 0.2–13.8%, correspondingly. The mean recoveries were in the range of 70.1–117.7%, and the matrix effects ranged from 73.0 to 121.4%. Of the 200 batches of cosmetics that claimed to have anti-acne effects, three batches were positive, with chemical components such as metronidazole, lincomycin, clindamycin, tinidazole and miconazole nitrate being discovered. Therefore, the Q-TOF spectrometry could be widely applied in routine screening of adulteration in cosmetics.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to extend appreciation to Agilent Technology for technical support.

Funding

This project was supported by Science and Technology Project of Zhejiang Medical Products Administration——Study on quality standard of plant raw materials used in cosmetics—bletilla striata extract and camellia oil (2021036).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, 310053, Zhejiang, People’s Republic of China

    Yanlin Gao

  2. Zhejiang Institute for Food and Drug Control, Hangzhou, 310052, Zhejiang, People’s Republic of China

    Cen Chen, Ren Wang, Zehua Li & Qiaoyuan Cheng

  3. Key Laboratory for Animal Alternative Testing Technology of Cosmetics by National Medical Products Administration (NMPA), Hangzhou, People’s Republic of China

    Cen Chen, Ren Wang, Zehua Li & Qiaoyuan Cheng

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  1. Yanlin Gao
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  2. Cen Chen
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  3. Ren Wang
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  4. Zehua Li
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  5. Qiaoyuan Cheng
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Correspondence to Qiaoyuan Cheng.

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Gao, Y., Chen, C., Wang, R. et al. Simultaneous Determination of 37 Anti-infective Drugs Potentially Illegally Added to Cosmetics that Claimed to have Anti-acne Effects by UHPLC-Q-TOF HRMS. Chromatographia 85, 1017–1028 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10337-022-04206-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10337-022-04206-3

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