Determination of methylparaben in some cosmetics and pharmaceutics using liquid-liquid extraction and spectrophotometric technique

Parabens are compounds often added to cosmetics and pharmaceutics as preservatives for fungi and bacterial growth, but, recent studies have linked these compounds to several adverse side-effects such as cancer, miscarriage and infertility. The extraction of methyl paraben from (hand cream, body lotion, blusher, body cream, and bath foam) was studied using liquid-liquid extraction with ethyl acetate as a solvent, and double beam UV-spectrophotometer at wave length 282 nm. Calibrations are linear (correlation coefficient r 0.997) and the limit of detection was 2.358 μg/mL The concentrations of methyl paraben for the selected cosmetic samples were ranged from 0.077% to 0.451%.