Simultaneous determination of six kinds of hydroxy acid in cosmetics using high performance liquid chromatography

A reverse-phase high performance liquid chromatographic(RP-HPLC) method with C18 Hypersil ODS column for the simultaneous determination of hydroxy acids including lactobionic acid,glycollic acid,tartaric acid,lactic acid,malic acid and citric acid in cosmetics,was studied.Results showed that,under conditions of pH=2.70,using 0.085 mol/L PBS as buffer solution,flow rate 0.8 mL/min,sample injection volume 10 μL,column temperature 25 ℃ and the UV detection wavelength 214 nm,the six kinds of hydroxy acid can be well separated and determined.Recovery rate of the six hydroxy acids achieves 92%~109%.Relative standard deviation(RSD) lies 1.20%~4.50%.Limit of detection lies 0.004 g/L~0.037 g/L.The method is suitable for routine analysis of commercial cosmetics.