Liquid chromatographic determination of propyl paraben in cigarette filler

A liquid chromatographic method for the quantitative determination of propyl paraben in cigarette tobacco filler has been developed. Propyl paraben is extracted from cigarette tobacco filler with acetonitrile and further purified using a silica Sep-Pak cartridge and ethyl acetate-petroleum ether (1 + 4) as eluting solvent. The purified extracts are analyzed by reverse-phase liquid chromatography using buffered water (pH 4)-acetonitrile (65 + 35) as mobile phase, with UV detection at 254 nm. Cut tobacco samples were fortified with 100 and 200 ppm propyl paraben. Average recoveries (N = 5) of propyl paraben were 98 and 94%, respectively, with coefficients of variation less than 4%.