Microfluidic Paper-Based Analytical Device (μPAD) For Determining Hydroquinone in Facial Whitening Cream Using Phloroglucinol Reagent
May 19, 2023
Abstract
A microfluidic paper-based analytical device (µPAD) is developed in this work to analyze hydroquinone in facial whitening creams using phloroglucinol. The µPAD features a hydrophobic barrier for detection and was fabricated using a wax printer with Whatman chromatographic paper. Detection was achieved by colorimetry based on the formation of an orange hydroquinone–phloroglucinol complex. The colored reaction product formed on the detection zone of the µPAD was scanned, and the images obtained were processed with Image-J software to determine their color intensity (RGB value). Optimization of the process conditions was conducted to achieve sensitive measurements. The optimum conditions yielding maximum sensitivity included a reagent addition sequence of phloroglucinol → NaOH → sample (hydroquinone), 1 µL of 0.5% phloroglucinol, 1 M NaOH, and a 10-minute reaction. Under optimal conditions, the µPAD produced two linear calibration curves for hydroquinone at concentrations of 10–100 mg/L (R2 = 0.9979) and 250–1000 mg/L (R2 = 0.9991). The method demonstrated very good selectivity for the target analyte in the presence of propylene glycol and resorcinol with satisfactory validity and average recovery close to 100%. The proposed µPAD is a very simple and inexpensive technique for hydroquinone analysis and could be applied to cosmetics samples with satisfactory results.
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Introduction
Hydroquinone determination in cosmetics can be achieved via several methods, including redox titration, thin-layer chromatography [1], spectrophotometry [4, 5], flow-injection spectrophotometry [6-8], and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) [9,10]. These methods, especially the latter, are well known to offer accurate measurements and high precision and effectiveness. However, these methods also require a skilled operator and are not portable; thus, they cannot be used for on-site measurements.
Materials and Methods
Materials and Equipment. The equipment used in this work included a wax printer (Xerox ColorCube 8580 DN-2 type T2B047382) to print the hydrophobic barrier on Whatman No. 1 chromatography paper (CHR, Whatman, GE Healthcare Life Sciences, UK) for the µPAD. A hotplate was used to heat the wax ink barrier and allow it to penetrate through the paper to produce a flawless barrier for the reaction zone. A Canon PIXMA MP237 scanner and Image-J software were used to interpret the color intensity of captured images into red, green, and blue (RGB) values, which were then converted to an absorbance value by using the modified Lambert–Beer Law.

Method Optimization. The process conditions of the proposed µPAD method were optimized to enable sensitive measurements.


Hydroquinone Determination. Hydroquinone detection under the optimum conditions determined in Section 2.3 was performed according to Figure 2. In this scheme, 1 µL of 0.5% phloroglucinol was dropped onto the µPAD detection zone. The device was allowed to stand for 5 min, and then 1 µL of 1 M NaOH solution was added to the detection zone. The device was allowed to stand for another 10 minutes to dry, after which it was considered ready for use. Hydroquinone detection could be achieved simply by dropping 1 µL of the sample onto the reaction zone of the µPAD device, allowing the paper to stand for 10 minutes, and then scanning the orange reaction product with a Canon PIXMA MP273 scanner. The color intensity of the images obtained was processed into RGB values by using Image-J software and then converted into absorbance values. The concentration of hydroquinone was determined by matching the absorbance obtained to a standard calibration curve.
Method Selectivity. The selectivity of the µPAD method toward hydroquinone in facial whitening creams was determined by obtaining hydroquinone measurements with and without resorcinol and propylene glycol as interfering compounds. Various concentrations of resorcinol (0, 25, 50, 125, and 250 mg/L) were added to five 10 mL volumetric flasks containing 25 mg/L hydroquinone and diluted to the mark. The color intensity of these solutions was measured using the same procedure for hydroquinone determination (Figure 2), the corresponding RGB values were converted to absorbance, and the hydroquinone recovery was calculated. The same procedure was repeated for propylene glycol with the same various concentrations as resorcinol. The difference in hydroquinone concentration obtained between solutions with and without the interfering compounds was used to calculate the % error.

Method Validation. Method validation was achieved by using the µPAD to determine hydroquinone in two cosmetics samples via the standard addition technique. Exactly 0.10 g of whitening creams A and B were weighed out and gradually dissolved with distilled water in a 50 mL beaker glass. The solution was passed through fine filter paper, and the filtrate was filtered once more using a syringe filter. The filtered solution was transferred to a 100 mL volumetric flask and added with distilled water up to the mark. Afterward, the sample was diluted to obtain a concentration that is within the range of the calibration curve.
Results and Discussion

Determination of Optimum Conditions
Optimization of the Reagent Addition Sequence. The order in which reagents are dropped onto the µPAD may influence the formation of the phloroglucinol–hydroquinone complex and the sensitivity of hydroquinone measurement. Figure 5 shows that sequence A2 yields a more intense color in the µPAD detection zone than sequence A1. This finding may be explained by the extensive transformation of phloroglucinol into phloroglucinol ions, which act as nucleophilic groups facilitating the formation of the desired complex, promoted by sequence A2. As shown in Figure 5, the intensity of blue readings was much higher compared with those of red and green readings. Besides, the blue readings were linearly correlated with the color intensity (or absorbance) and hydroquinone concentration. This finding agrees with the results of Kohl [30], who found that a linear relationship between intensity and concentration may be achieved by using complementary color readings. Thus, blue readings were selected to measure the color intensity of the µPAD images in subsequent experiments.

Optimization of the Phloroglucinol Volume. The optimum phloroglucinol volume could produce the highest color intensity of the phloroglucinol–hydroquinone complex precisely in the area of the detection zone. The greater the phloroglucinol volume, the higher the color intensity (absorbance) of the complex, as shown in Figure 6. The absorbance determined using blue readings increased with increasing phloroglucinol volume up to 1 µL; however, phloroglucinol volumes exceeding 1.2 µL caused the complex to cross the hydrophobic barrier, which could lead to erroneous results. Therefore, a phloroglucinol volume of 1 µL was used for further optimization.

Optimization of the Phloroglucinol Concentration. The absorbance of the orange complex of phloroglucinol–hydroquinone increased initially with the phloroglucinol concentration up to 0.5% and then leveled off because all the hydroquinone has completely formed a phloroglucinol–hydroquinone complex (Figure 7). Therefore, 0.5% was considered the optimal phloroglucinol concentration.
Optimization of the NaOH Concentration. The optimum NaOH concentration provides a suitable alkaline atmosphere for the formation of negatively charged phloroglucinol ions. The hydroxyl (OH–) group of NaOH can attack the hydrogen in the OH– group of phloroglucinol to form a phloroglucinol ion, which, in turn, could attack hydroquinone to form a heterocomplex phloroglucinol–hydroquinone complex. Figure 8 reveals that higher NaOH concentrations increase the color intensity of the µPAD images. The highest absorbance was obtained at a NaOH concentration of 1 M. Thus, 1 M NaOH was used for subsequent experiments.

Optimization of the Reaction Time. The reaction time was optimized to determine the shortest scanning time and avoid the color degradation of the complex compounds. A short reaction time can result in the incomplete formation of the phloroglucinol–hydroquinone complex. However, long reaction times may degrade the complex color via exposure to light and unsuitable temperature and pH. A reaction time of 10 minutes yielded optimum results with maximum absorbance (Figure 9). This reaction time was used for subsequent experiments.
Standard Curve and Linearity Measurements. Under the optimum conditions obtained above (i.e., A2 reagent immobilization sequence, 1 µL of 0.5% phloroglucinol, 1 M NaOH, and 10-minute reaction), the µPAD method by using 1 µL of the sample demonstrated clear differences in color intensity as the hydroquinone concentration was varied from 10 mgL−1 to 1000 mg/L (Figure 10). When the RGB values of the color intensity of the images obtained were converted to absorbance values and the latter was plotted as a function of hydroquinone concentration, very good correlations (i.e., R 2 close to 1) were obtained over the concentration ranges of 10–100 mg/L (Figure 11-a) and 250–1000 mg/L hydroquinone (Figure 11-b). The µPAD images presented colors with greater intensity under high hydroquinone concentrations and lower intensity under low hydroquinone concentrations. In other words, the higher the hydroquinone concentration, the greater the color intensity of the orange phloroglucinol–hydroquinone complex.

According to Figure 11, the hydroquinone concentration is proportional to the color intensity of the µPAD image; specifically, the greater the hydroquinone concentration, the higher the absorbance value obtained from the intensity of the blue readings. The standard curve for hydroquinone at concentrations ranging from 10 mgL−1 to 100 mgL−1 provided a linear regression equation of y = 0.0004x + 0.0563 (R2 = 0.9979). Similarly, the relationship between hydroquinone concentration and absorbance gave a linear regression equation of y = 0.0001x + 0.0923 (R2 = 0.9991) at hydroquinone concentrations of 250–1000 mgL−1. In this work, R2 values close to 1 indicate very good linear correlations between concentration and absorbance.
Method Selectivity. The selectivity of the µPAD method was investigated by adding separately resorcinol and propylene glycol, two substances that are commonly present in whitening cosmetics, to a standard hydroquinone solution. As depicted in Table 1, the addition of resorcinol at concentrations of 25, 50, and 125 mg/L did not significantly affect hydroquinone measurements obtained using the µPAD method. This finding is supported by the small % error generated (<10%). Hydroquinone measurements obtained following the addition of 250 mg/L resorcinol (1:10) showed a slight increase, with a % error of 10.82%. The results of a t-test at the 95% confidence level showed that count (3.65) is greater than the table (2.92). Thus, the addition of resorcinol to a sample at amounts 10 times greater than the hydroquinone concentration can increase the measured concentration of the latter. The addition of propylene glycol at concentrations of 25, 50, 125, and 250 mg/L did not interfere with the measurement of hydroquinone concentration, as indicated by the low % error determined from the experiments.


Method Validation. The validity of the µPAD method was assessed by detecting hydroquinone in two types of whitening cream cosmetics. The results of the validation test are presented in Table 2. The µPAD method showed very good accuracy and validity, as supported by recovery values in the range of 95%–105%, as well as high precision (%RSD < 10%).
In summary, the µPAD method proposed in this work provides satisfactory accuracy and precision. Therefore, the fabricated device can be used as an alternative method for detecting hydroquinone in whitening cream cosmetics.

Conclusion
Hydroquinone in whitening creams can be determined using the proposed μPAD, which is based on the simple reaction of hydroquinone with phloroglucinol under alkaline conditions to form an orange hydroquinone–phloroglucinol complex. This method could be used to determine hydroquinone concentrations in the ranges of 10–100 and 250–1000 mg/L. Although the µPAD developed in this work is less sensitive compared with other advanced methods, it involves a simple process and is inexpensive. The proposed μPAD device may be used as a test kit for monitoring hydroquinone in facial whitening creams with fairly high accuracy and precision.

Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful to the Chemistry Department, Brawijaya University, for facilitating this research and the Faculty of Science, Brawijaya University, for providing financial support through Doctoral Grant 2020, DIPA-023.17.2.677512/2020, Contract No. 32/UN10.F09/PN/2020.
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