Determination of free formaldehyde in the presence of donators in cosmetics by HPLC and post-column derivation

Summary The determination of free formaldehyde in the presence of its donators in cosmetic samples by a combination of reversed phase chromatography and post column reaction detection is described. The free formaldehyde is separated on a RP column with water as eluent from interfering formaldehyde-containing compounds and consecutively determined by the lutidine method in a reaction detector with knitted open tubes. With detection in the visible (420nm) the minimum detectable quantity is 40 ppb, with fluorimetric detection 15 ppb. The sample clean-up procedure for cosmetic products ranging from mascara to shampoo is by extracting the formaldehyde with water of pH 3, where the decomposition rate of the donators is minimal. Smaller amounts of free formaldehyde are always found compared to the standard lutidine method.