Analysis of 13 Banned Colorants in Cosmetics via Liquid Chromatographic and Mass Spectrometric Techniques

Abstract

Even though synthetic colorants can cause side effects such as allergies and pigmentation, they have not been sufficiently researched. Herein, high-performance liquid chromatography, liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, and liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC-Q-TOF-MS) were used to detect 13 banned synthetic colorants in cosmetics and characterize their fragmentation. The developed HPLC method was validated following the International Conference on Harmonisation guidelines (specificity, limit of detection, limit of quantification, recovery, linearity, accuracy, and precision) and applied to 120 distributed cosmetic products, one of which was found to contain three illegal synthetic colorants, namely Basic Blue 26 (0.33 mg/g), Basic Red 2 (0.53 mg/g), and Basic Yellow 28 (31.50 mg/g). Additionally, based on their fragment ions obtained using LC-Q-TOF-MS, the fragmentation pattern of synthetic colorants was predicted. Thus, our work paves the way for the reliable detection of illegal synthetic colorants and may help to prevent the distribution of cosmetics containing the same.

Mass-Spectrometry-Based Research of Cosmetic Ingredients

“…The MS fragmentation patterns, confirmed via LC-Q-TOF-MS (performed using an Agilent 1290 Infinity II LC system (Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, CA, USA) coupled with an Agilent 6545XT Q-TOF-MS system (Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, CA, USA)), of 11 out of 13 prohibited dye species were reported by Han et al [ 90 ] for the first time, and among the 120 cosmetic samples, one was found to contain three illegal compounds: Basic Blue 26, Basic Red 2, and Basic Yellow 28. Thus, the work of Han et al [ 90 ] shows future promise in view of more rigorous screening and control of the presence of illegal ingredients in cosmetic products and to hinder/restrain their distribution.…”

“…Using sequential steps based on HPLC, LC-MS/MS, and LC-Q-TOF-MS, in Han et al [ 90 ], 13 banned synthetic colorants were detected and structurally characterized (Basic Blue 26, Basic Red 2, Disperse Brown 1, Disperse Orange 3, Disperse Yellow 3, HC Blue No. 2, HC Yellow No.…”