Determination of hinokitiol in skin lotion by high-performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet detection after precolumn derivatization with 4-fluoro-7-nitro-2,1,3-benzoxadiazole.

Hinokitiol, a potent, broad-spectrum antibacterial agent, is a component of various personal care products. In this study, the concentration of hinokitiol in skin lotion was analyzed by means of high-performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet detection (380 nm) after precolumn derivatization with 4-fluoro-7-nitro-2,1, 3-benzoxadiazole (NBD-F). A standard curve was obtained after derivatization of the authentic compound with NBD-F in borate buffer (pH 9.0) at 60°C for 10 min. The retention time of NBD-hinokitiol was 7.2 min. The calibration plot was linear in the range of 0.2 to 4 mg/ml with an r2 value of 0.9985, and the lower limit of detection was 0.05 μg/ml (at a signal-to-noise ratio of 3, absolute amount of 0.33 ng/20 μl injection). The coefficient of variation was less than 9.4%. It was found that the amount of hinokitiol in the tested skin lotion was 194 ± 14 μg/ml (range: 180-212 μg/ml). Recovery in addition-recovery tests was within the range of 84.5% to 98.0%. This system is simple, sensitive, and convenient, and should be suitable for routine quality assessment of personal care products containing hinokitiol.