Extraction of Parabens from Water Samples Using Cloud Point Extraction with a Non-Ionic Surfactant with β-Cyclodextrin as Modifier

A cloud point extraction process using a silicone non-ionic surfactant to extract selected parabens compounds from water samples was investigated using reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography. The cloud point extraction process, in the presence of beta-cyclodextrin (beta-CD) as a modifier, is a new extraction process which was optimized with five parameters, i.e. salt concentration, pH of the solution, temperature, surfactant concentration and beta-CD concentration. The developed method with the beta-CD modifier results in an excellent performance on detection of parabens from water samples with limits of detection in the range of 0.017-0.043 mu g/L and percentage recoveries from 90.5 to 98.9 %.