| Abstract: | A rapid, precise, and accurate liquid chromatographic (LC) method is described for the determination of benzoyl peroxide (BP) in acne preparations. BP is extracted from a water dispersion of the preparation with dichloromethane (DCM), and an aliquot is eluted from a C-18 reverse phase LC column with acetonitrile-0.10 M aqueous NaClO4. Selective and sensitive quantitation is accomplished with a reductive mode electrochemical detector. This detector is an order of magnitude more sensitive than a 240 nm UV absorption detector; the lower limit of detection is 2 ng for a 4 microL injection. The recovery of BP is 99.4% and the detector response is linear to at least 2 micrograms per 4 microL injection. |
