OBJECTIVE To explore the influence of reusing and recycling times on the quality of ethanol recovered from ethanol deposition solution of aqueous extract of Lonicerae Japonicae Flos. METHODS The ethanol in five consecutive batches of Lonicerae Japonicae Flos water extract ethanol deposition was recovered by vacuum distillation. The impurities in five batches of recovered ethanol and the recovered ethanol when partial coking caused by temperature runaway were qualitatively analyzed by headspace solid phase micro extraction combined with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry(HS-SPME/GC-MS), and the ultraviolet absorbance of each batch of recovered ethanol was also analyzed. RESULTS Styrene was the only impurity in the first and second batch of recovered ethanol; there were five impurities in the third and fourth batch of recovered ethanol; the number of impurities in the fifth batch of recovered ethanol increases to 17. When partial coking was occurred, the exogenous impurities in the recovered ethanol increased dramatically to forty-one, and there were harmful substances such as ninhydrin and naphthalene. The ultraviolet absorbance of the third to fifth batch of recovered ethanol exceed the upper limit stipulated in the second part of Chinese Pharmacopoeia, 2020 Edition. While the ultraviolet absorbance of the recovered ethanol when partial coking takes place exceeds the standard of the pharmacopoeia greatly. CONCLUSION The recovered ethanol should be treated after being reused two times, so that its ultraviolet absorbance level and impurity type are equivalent to that of fresh ethanol before it can be used again. The method provides reference for the quality control and compliance use of recovered ethanol.

ObjectiveTo establish an analytical method for the determination of resorcinol, ferulic acid, phenethylresorcinol and benzoyl peroxide in freckle whitening cosmetics by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), to provide data support for the establishment of cosmetics inspection methods and technical support for the supervision of the cosmetics industry. MethodsThe analytes in samples were extracted by ultrasonic acetonitrile after methanol vortex, and then filtered by centrifugation and microporous filter membrane. Finally, the analytes were separated with a SVEA C4 column (250 mm×4.6 mm, 5 μm). The mobile phase was composed of 0.1% phosphoric acid solution -acetonitrile, and the gradient elution was applied, with a flow rate of 1.0 mL·min^-1. The samples were detected by an ultra-violet detector and quantified by external standard method. ResultsResorcinol, ferulic acid, phenylethylresorcinol and benzoyl peroxide showed good linearity in the experimental range with r>0.999. HPLC was used to investigate the positive spiked recoveries of ferulic acid or phenylethylresorcinol with different matrices. The results showed that the recoveries were all in the range of 87.48% to 101.00%, and the relative standard deviations were all in the range of 3.4% to 4.1%. Furthermore, HPLC also examined the blank matrix spiked with the recoveries ranged from 93.26% to 107.66%, with the relative standard deviation of 0.90% to 2.90%. The limits of detection ranged from 0.000 8% to 0.002%. Among the30 batches of standard freckle whitening cosmetics determined, 6 batches of which were detected with phenethylresorcinol and 1 batch with ferulic acid. ConclusionHPLC is a method with rapidity, simplicity, and high sensitivity, which is suitable for the simultaneous determination of resorcinol, ferulic acid, phenethylresorcinol and benzoyl peroxide in commercially available cosmetics.