Parabens (alkyl
esters of p-
hydroxybenzoic acid) are widely used as preservatives in food,
cosmetics and
pharmaceutical products. However, weak estrogenicity of some
parabens has been reported in several studies, which provided the impetus for this work. Here, a simple and efficient analytical method for quantifying
parabens in
cancer tissues has been developed. This technique involves the simultaneous use of microwave-assisted
solvent extraction (MASE) and micro-solid phase extraction (μ-SPE), in tandem with high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC/UV) analysis for the determination of
parabens. The
pollutants studied included four
parabens (methyl, ethyl, propyl and butyl
parabens). Optimization of the experimental parameters for MASE and μ-SPE was performed. Good relative standard deviation (%RSD) ranged from 0.09 to 2.81% and high enrichment factors (27-314) were obtained. Coefficients of determination (r(2)) up to 0.9962 were obtained across a concentration range of 5.0-200ngg(-1). The method detection limits for
parabens ranged from 0.005 to 0.0244ngg(-1). The procedure was initially tested on prawn samples to demonstrate its feasibility on a complex
biological matrix. Preliminary studies on human
ovarian cancer (OC) tissues showed presence of
parabens. Higher levels of
parabens were detected in malignant ovarian
tumor tissues compared to benign
tumor tissue samples.