Determination of Corticosteroids in Moisturizers by LC-MS/MS

Simultaneous determination of three corticosteroids (clobetasol propionate, betamethasone dipropionate, fluticasone propionate) in moisturizers was performed by using liquid chromatography (LC) coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). Sample preparation was conducted by the liquid-liquid extraction (LLE). Moisturizers include emulsifying agent and it forms micelles. In order to improve the extraction efficiency of corticosteroids trapped in micelle, newly developed-optimized extraction conditions which can remove the matrix effect from moisturizers was applied with various pH conditions in LLE extraction stage of sample preparation. Thus, the addition of 10 μL of 1 M HCl into moisturizers sample before extraction could improve the extraction efficiency. For the quantitative analysis, SRM table that contained specific transition of all of target corticosteroids was created. The developed method was validated for linearity, accuracy, precision, limit of detection (LOD), limit of quantization (LOQ) and recovery. Over the 0.99 r² value was obtained in calibration standard range. Effective accuracy and precision were also obtained. LODs were below 31 ng/mL and LOQs were estimated below 94 ng/mL for all corticosteroids tested.