Simultaneous Determination of p-Hydroxybenzoate Preservatives in Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Formulations

A new simple, reliable and selective Thin-Layer Chromatographic (TLC) method has been developed for the simultaneous determination of four common p-hydroxy benzoates (parabens); methyl paraben (MP), ethyl paraben (EP), propyl paraben (PP) and butyl paraben (BP) using mobile phase in basic medium on silica gel F254 stationary phase. Detection was carried out with newly developed chromogenic visualisation reagent. Studies for minimum detection limit of the compounds were performed with new method. The detection limit for all these compounds with new chromogenic visualisation reagent were in the range of 0.4–0.8 (μg/spot). The method gave reproducible results and was successfully applied to simultaneous determination of these compounds in commercially available personal care products and pharmaceutical preparations. The separation method is inexpensive and reliable.