Quickly Identify Rhodamine B in Cosmetics

Thermo Fisher Scientific has developed an efficient high-performance liquid chromatography method that uses fluorescence detection to achieve a rapid and sensitive determination of rhodamine B in cosmetics.

Application Note 1102: Rapid and Sensitive Determination of Rhodamine B in Cosmetics demonstrates the advantages of this method using a rapid separation liquid chromatography (RSLC) column on an RSLC system.

This approach provides good method reproducibility (retention time reproducibility relative standard deviation [RSD] of 0.09% and peak area reproducibility RSD of 0.75%) and a wide linear calibration range (from 2 to 1000 μg/L).

Rhodamine B, a brightly colored synthetic pigment, has been extensively used as a dye in many industries, including those that produce paper, paints, textiles, leather, and porcelain. Long-term contact with rhodamine B may cause cancer and birth defects; thus, it has been prohibited as a food additive.

The addition of rhodamine B to cosmetics also may be a potential cause of cancer and birth defects in humans, thereby creating the need to establish efficient methods for its sensitive and rapid determination in cosmetics.