[Analysis of the phthalates in cosmetics by capillary gas chromatography]

A capillary gas chromatographic method with flame ionization detector (GC-FID) for the detection of the six phthalates (dimethyl phthalate (DMP), diethyl phthalate (DEP), di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP), butyl benzyl phthalate (BBP), di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), di-n-octyl phthalate (DOP)) in the cosmetics was developed. The phthalates were extracted from cosmetics with methanol under ultrasonication and then separated with high-speed centrifugation. The supernatant was dehydrated and filtrated through membrane with 0.5 microm pore diameter. The filtrate was injected into the GC system for analysis. Then the positive results observed in the GC-FID chromatogram were confirmed by gas chromatography-electron impact-mass detection (GC-EI-MS) analysis. Retention times of the peaks could be applied for qualitative analysis. External standard method was used for quantitative analysis. The recoveries of the six phthalates were between 82.90% and 109.50%. The relative standard deviations were between 2.1% and 4.6%. The detection limits of the method were: 0.1 ng for DMP, DEP, DBP and BBP, and 0.5 ng for DEHP and DOP, respectively. The method presented the advantages of high precision, high sensitivity, small sample size, and simple pretreatment. The method can be used to test the six phthalates in the cosmetics.