Determination of 25 quinolones in cosmetics by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

An analytical method was developed for the simultaneous determination of 25 quinolones, including danofloxacin mesylate, enrofloxacin, flumequine, oxloinic acid, ciprofloxacin, sarafloxacin, nalidixic acid, norfloxacin, and ofloxacin etc in cosmetics using direct extraction and liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS/MS). Cosmetic sample was extracted by acidified acetonitrile, defatted by n-hexane and separated on Poroshell EC-C18 column with gradient elution program using acetonitrile and water (both containing 0. 1% formic acid) as the mobile phases and analyzed by LC-ESI-MS/MS under the positive mode using multiple reaction monitoring (MRM). The interference of matrix was reduced by the matrix-matched calibration standard curve. The method showed good linearities over the range of 1-200 mg/kg for the 25 quinolones with good linear correlation coefficients (r ≥ 0.999). The method detection limit of the 25 quinolones was 1.0 mg/kg, and the recoveries of all analytes in lotion, milky and cream cosmetics matrices ranged from 87.4% to 105% at the spiked levels of 1, 5 and 10 mg/kg with the relative standard deviations (RSD) of 4.54%-19.7% (n = 6). The results indicated that this method is simple, fast and credible, and suitable for the simultaneous determination of the quinolones in the above three types of cosmetics.