Procedure to Determine Hydroquinone in Cosmetics

Mohd Taufik bin Abd Hamid

M20121000021
Dept. of Chemistry
Faculty of Science and Mathematics
Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris

SKA 6014 Advanced Analytical Chemistry

April 2013

Introduction
Hydroquinone is considered the primary topical ingredient for inhibiting melanin production. Its
components have potent antioxidant abilities. Topical hydroquinone comes in 2% (available in
cosmetics) to 4% (or more) concentrations (available from a physician or by prescription), alone
or in combination with tretinoin 0.05% to 0.1%. Research has shown hydroquinone and tretinoin
to prevent sun- or hormone-induced melasma.

Hydroquinone is a strong inhibitor of melanin production, meaning that it prevents dark skin
from making the substance responsible for skin color. Hydroquinone does not bleach the skin but
lightens it, and can only disrupt the synthesis and production of melanin hyperpigmentation. It
has been banned in some countries because of fears of a cancer risk.

Analytical method to determine hydroquinone

Several analytical methods have been developed to determine hydroquinone. It’s including high
performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), flow injection analysis, spectrophotometry and
electrochemistry. Direct quantitative determination of hydroquinone using traditional
spectrophotometry suffers interference difficulties due to the similar structures and properties of
hydroquinone and catechol, two positional isomers of dihydroxybenzene. While high
performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is a good option for the determination of
hydroquinone, the procedures are time-consuming. Other methods such as synchronous
fluorescence, biosensing, and capillary electrochromatography, have been developed to
determine hydroquinone.

Capilary electrochromatography (CEC) is a recent analytical technique performed in fised-silica

capillaries packed with chromatographic particle materials immobilized into the column by an
inlet and outlet frits. In CEC both electrophoretic and chromatographic mechanism are combined
and the analytes can be saperated according to their different mobile and stationary phase.
Compare to HPLC, CEC method can offer ahigher efficiencies and shorter analysis time.
Sample preparation
Weight cosmetics accurately and transfer to three separate 25 ml volumetric flask and dissolve in
methanol. Add 50 µg/ml-1 of resorcinol as internal standard. Sonicate the solution vigorously for
30 minutes and centrifuge at 400 rpm for 30 minutes. Filter the solution to obtain a transparent
solution.

Instruments
Automatic Electrophoresis Instrument equipped with UV-visible diod array detector.

Procedure

Preparation of CEC packed column

Preparation of standard solution

Sample preparation

Injected for CEC experiment

Data analysis

Bibliography

Claudia Desiderio, L. O. (2000). Analysis of hydroquinone and some of its ethers by using
capillary. Journal of Chromatography , 489-496.

P. O. Odumosu, T. O. (2010). Identification and spectrophometric determination ofhydroquinone

levels in some cosmetic creams. African Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology , 231-234.

Yiyi She1, Y. T. (2010). Electrochemical determination of hydroquinoneusing hydrophobic ionic

liquid-type carbon paste electrodes. Chemistry Central Journal , 17-26.