Simultaneous derivatisation and preconcentration of parabens in food and other matrices by isobutyl chloroformate and dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction followed by gas chromatographic analysis

A simple, rapid and economical method has been proposed for the quantitative determination of parabens (methyl, ethyl, propyl and butyl paraben) in different samples (food, cosmetics and water) based on isobutyl chloroformate (IBCF) derivatisation and preconcentration using dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction in single step. Under optimum conditions, solid samples were extracted with ethanol (disperser solvent) and 200 μL of this extract along with 50 μL of chloroform (extraction solvent) and 10 μL of IBCF was rapidly injected into 2 mL of ultra-pure water containing 150 μL of pyridine to induce formation of a cloudy state. After centrifugation, 1 μL of the sedimented phase was analysed using gas chromatograph-flame ionisation detector (GC-FID) and the peaks were confirmed using gas chromatograph-positive chemical ionisation-mass spectrometer (GC-PCI-MS). Method was found to be linear over the range of 0.1-10 μg mL−1 with square of correlation coefficient (R2) in the range of 0.9913-0.9992. Limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) were found to be 0.029-0.102 μg mL−1 and 0.095-0.336 μg mL−1 with a signal to noise ratio of 3:1 and 10:1, respectively.