A high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometric(HPLC-MS/MS) method was developed for the simultaneous determination of 15 prohibited nitroimidazoles(NMZs) in 4 matrixes of cosmetics.Samples were ultrasonically extracted with solvent

and then purified by modified QuEChERS method

filtered through a 0.22 μm microporous membrane.The target compounds were separated on an XSelect CSH C18(2.1 mm×150 mm

3.5 μm) column by gradient elution using acetonitrile solution containing 0.1% formic acid-0.1%formic acid as mobile phase at a flow rate of 0.25 mL/min.The MS/MS analysis was performed with electrospray ion source in positive mode under multiple reaction monitoring(MRM) mode.The matrix matched calibration was used for the quantification.Results showed that there were good linear relationships for 15 nitroimidazoles in the concentration range of 5-500 μg/L with their correlation coefficients(r2) all above 0.99.The limits of detection(LOD) and limits of quantitation(LOQ) were in the ranges of 0.8-200 μg/kg and 4-400 μg/kg

respectively.The recoveries for 15 prohibited drugs at three spiked levels were in the range of 868%-115%with relative standard deviations(RSD) of 0.3%-84%.With simple pretreatment

high separation efficiency and high recovery

the method was suitable for the analysis of nitroimidazoles in cosmetics products.