Development and application of a HPLC method for eight sunscreen agents in suncare products

This work describes the development, validation and application of a simple and fast high-performance liquid chromatography-with diode array dectection (HPLC-DAD) method for the determination of eight sunscreen agents: benzophenone-3, octocrylene, ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate, ethylhexyl salicylate, homosalate (used in two isomeric forms), butyl methoxydibenzoylmethane, 4-methylbenzylidene camphor and ethylhexyl dimethyl PABA in sunscreen formulations. The separation of the eight sunscreen compounds was achieved using an ACE C18 column (250 × 4.6 mm, 5 μm), with a column temperature 20°C, and a mobile phase of 88 : 12 (v/v) methanol-water with isocratic elution. Column temperature strongly influences the retention time and resolution of the compounds. The flow rate was 1.0 mL min(-1) and quantitation was performed by external calibration at the maximum wavelength of each compound. The sample preparation was simple and consisted basically of sample dilution with methanol, centrifugation and filtration in syringe filters before quantitation. Total run time was 18 min. The method was validated according to the parameters: linear range, linearity, selectivity, intra-day and inter-day precision and accuracy. Ten samples of sunscreen emulsions commercially available in Brazil (SPF 30) from different manufacturers were analysed using the proposed method. The number of the sunscreen agents varied between one and five in a single sample. The concentrations of all compounds were in the range of 0.9-10% (w/w) and were in accordance with the current Brazilian legislation.