Ultra-Performance Liquid Chromatography with Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry for the Determination of Coenzyme Q₁₀ as an Anti-Aging Ingredient in Edible Cosmetics

A simple and rapid method for the determination of coenzyme Q₁₀ in edible cosmetics was developed and validated. Cleanup utilizing a solid-phase extraction technique provided a simple and reliable method for extracting both coenzyme Q₁₀ and its internal standard coenzyme Q₉ from the lecithin-rich samples with efficiencies of 92 ± 4% and 89 ± 3%, respectively. The separation of analytes through a reversed-phase C₁₈ column was carried out within 10 min. By employing authentic coenzyme Q₁₀ and the internal standard spiked into blank matrices, the combined use of solid phase extraction cleanup and chromatographic separation coupled with electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry detection was shown to be sufficiently accurate to detect coenzyme Q₁₀ in edible cosmetic matrices. The limit of quantification of coenzyme Q₁₀ determined by the validated method was 54 ng/g in the matrices. In addition, the intra- and inter-day precision was <4% and the accuracy ranged from 87.1 to 92.3%. Quantitative results for coenzyme Q₁₀ levels in two different edible cosmetic samples obtained by the established analytical protocol were reproducible. This is the first report of the determination of coenzyme Q₁₀ in lipophilic edible cosmetic matrices by liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry.