Analysis of cosmetic products by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry and fast-atom bombardment mass spectrometry: when a combined approach is successful

✍ Scribed by R. Maffei Facino; M. Carini; G. Aldini; C. Marinello; P. Traldi; R. Seraglia

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 156 KB
• Volume: 11
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0951-4198
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0231(199708)11:12<1329::aid-rcm969>3.0.co;2-r

✦ Synopsis

Fast-atom bombardment mass spectrometry (FAB-MS, both in the positive-and negative-ion modes) and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) were applied for the rapid identification of the main ingredients of two widely employed cosmetic products, a mascara and a semipermanent hair dye. FAB-MS, on the untreated product (hair dye) or on a crude methanol extract (mascara) gives an unequivocal fingerprint of involatile constituents, i.e. surfactants, anionic (cetyl/stearyl soaps) in mascara and cationic (polyethoxylated oleyl/linoleyl/ricinoleyl-methyl ammonium chloride) in the hair dye. GC/MS (n-hexane and chloroform extracts), detects hydrocarbons, volatile silicon compounds, perfume components, preservatives and antioxidants in mascara and fatty acids (C 8 -C 18 ), dye solvents and 4 colouring agents: 2-amino-5-nitrophenol, HC Yellow 2 (N-2-hydroxyethyl-o-nitroaniline); O-(2-hydroxyethyl)-4-amino-3-nitrophenol and HC Red3, N-(2-hydroxyethyl)-2-nitro-p-phenylendiamine in the hair dye. These results demonstrate that the combined FAB-MS and GC/MS approaches, enabling a complete picture of the constituents of the cosmetic matrix, provide an invaluable analytical tool for the quality control of cosmetics, a subject that has been rather neglected to date.