Simultaneous determination of antioxidants and preservatives in cosmetics and pharmaceutical preparations by reversed-phase HPLC

A high performance liquid chromatographic method for the simultaneous determination of multiple additives in o/w cosmetic and pharmaceutical formulations was developed by using a RP-8 Select B column, a linear gradient elution and UV detection. A very simple extraction procedure was required. The separation obtained for nine antioxidants and seven preservatives was very good under the chromatographic conditions used. Their analysis was carried out in commercial samples and satisfactory results were obtained both far the recovery and the coefficient of variation.