Determination of alpha-hydroxy acids in cosmetic products by capillary electrophoresis

In this work, a simple and reliable method for the simultaneous analysis of alpha-hydroxy acids such as tartaric, glycolic and lactic acids in cosmetic products was developed using capillary electrophoresis with indirect UV detection at 254 nm. A buffer solution containing 10 mmoll(-1) potassium phthalate (pH 4.1) and 0.5 mmoll(-1) cetyltrimethylammonium bromide as electroosmotic flow modifier allowed baseline resolution of the analytes in approximately 3 min. A few validation parameters of the proposed method include: good linearity for all compounds in the range from 10 to 100 mgl(-1) with coefficients of correlation larger than 0.9999. The average recoveries of tartaric, glycolic and lactic acids in commercial samples were 99.12, 99.41 and 99.43%, respectively. The method presented acceptable precision with average relative standard deviation of 0.54% (assay of commercial samples), 0.44% (peak area) and 0.16% (migration time).