Determination of 61 kinds of sex hormones in cosmetics by ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

：An ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometric method was developed for the determination of 61 kinds of sex hormones in cosmetics. The toner，lotion，cream and gel samples were dispersed with acetonitrile and ultrasonically extracted with 50% （V/V） acetonitrile solution. The oil samples were dispersed with n-hexane and extracted with 70%（V/V）acetonitrile solution. The samples were separated on a CORTECS C18column（2.1 mm×150 mm，2.7 μµm）using a gradient elution program with acetonitrile and water as the mobile phase. The analysis was performed under multiple reaction monitoring （MRM）mode. Matrix-matched external standard calibration was used for quantitation. The results showed that the limits of detection （LODs，S/N≥3）and limits of quantitation（LOQs，S/N≥10）for 61 kinds of sex hormones were in the ranges of 0.03-0.31 μµg/g and 0.09-0.92 μµg/g，respectively. Good linear relationships were obtained in the concentration range of 15-150 μµg/L with the correlation coefficients（R2）greater than 0.99．Five types of cosmetics were selected to verify the recoveries and precisions of the method at low，medium and high spiked levels. The average recoveries of the 61 kinds of sex hormones were in the range of 80.0%-117.7%. The relative standard deviations （RSDs） varied from 1.5% to 14%. This method provides technical support for the rapid risk screening of cosmetics and the revision of national standards. © 2023, Youke Publishing Co.,Ltd. All rights reserved.