Eco-Friendly and Efficient Extraction of Parabens from Cream Products Using Magnetic Cellulose Nanoparticles: A Promising Analytical Method

This study presents an eco-friendly and efficient method for the extraction of methylparaben, ethylparaben, propylparaben and butylparaben from cream products using magnetic cellulose nanoparticles as a solid phase extraction sorbent. Parameters that affect adsorption (pH, adsorption time, amount of magnetic cellulose nanoparticles, salt content and sample volume) and desorption (desorption solvent, desorption volume, type of energy and time) were studied. The values that provided the maximum adsorption efficiency and extraction recovery were selected at optimum conditions for adsorption and desorption, respectively. Following the sample preparation stage, high-performance liquid chromatography with a photo-diode array detector was implemented. The intra and inter-day (n=5) precision were below 8.7%. Limits of detection and quantification were in the range 0.19–0.31 μg L−1 and 0.63–1.1 μg L−1, respectively. Analyte extraction in real samples yielded excellent preconcentration factors (141-150) and good recoveries (87.9% to 100.8%). The proposed method is a promising alternative for the analysis of parabens in cream products, as it is simple, rapidly implemented, and environmentally favourable.