Determination of zinc pyrithione in shampoos by HPLC and HPLC-MS/MS

Methods have been developed for the determination of zinc pyrithione (ZPT) in shampoos using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS). Samples were washed by water first to remove surfactant and water-soluble impurities, then ultrasonic-extracted by acetonitrile-methanol for 30 min, and finally analyzed by MG C18 column (250 mm x 4.6 mm, 5 μm) or RP-18e (100 mm x 3 mm, 2 μm) plus APCI-MS/MS. Limits of detection were determined as 0.015% (HPLC) and 0.003% (HPLC-MS/MS), with a limit of quantization of 0.05% and 0.01%, respectively. The recoveries were 85.8-104% (HPLC) and 87.6-107% (HPLC-MS/MS). A good linear relationship was obtained from 3.20 μg·ml(-1) to 200 μg·ml(-1) (HPLC) and 1.00 μg·ml(-1) to 200 μg·ml(-1) (HPLC-MS/MS). The proposed methods have been successfully applied to the analysis of ZPT in many shampoos. The established two methods were rapid and reproducible with low interference.