Abstract: An analytical method for the simultaneous determination of 6 antibiotics (minocycline, oxytetracycline, tetracycline hydrochloride, chlorotetracycline hydrochloride, doxycycline hydrochloride and chloramphenicol) and metronidazole in acne removal products of cosmetic was established using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The drugs in the sample were extracted with methanol. The separation was performed on an Agilent ZORBAX SB-C18 column (250 mm×4.6 mm, 5 μm) at 20 ℃ with methanol, acetonitrile and 0.002 mol/L oxalic acid solution as mobile phases with gradient elution at a flow rate of 0.8 mL/min. The detection was performed by a diode array detector (DAD) at 268 nm. The injection volume was 10 μL. The quantification was performed by external standard method. The calibration curves showed good linearity within the range of 1-30 mg/L with the correlation coefficients no less than 0.9970. The detection limits were in the range of 1.1-1.2 μg/g. The recoveries were between 91.9% and 107.7% in three spiked levels of 5, 10 and 20 mg/L with the relative standard deviations (RSDs) of 0.13%-1.74%. The method was used in the analysis of acne removal products, and metronidazole was found in 15% of the total test samples. The method is rapid, sensitive, accurate, effective in separation, and can be used in the determination of the six antibiotics and metronidazole in acne removal products.

Key words: acne removal products, antibiotics, cosmetics, metronidazole, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)