Parabens are a family of synthetic esters of p-hydroxibenzoic acid widely used as preservatives in cosmetics and health-care products, among other daily-use commodities. Recently, their potential endocrine disrupting effects have raised concerns about their safety and their potential effects as emerging pollutants, leading to the regulation of the presence of parabens in commercial products by national and trans-national organizations. Also, this has led to an interest in developing sensible and reliable methods for their determination in environmental samples, cosmetics and health-care products. This paper is a comprehensive up-to-date review of the literature concerning the determination of parabens in environmental samples and cosmetic and health-care products. A brief revision of the literature concerning the traditional determination of parabens (1980-2003) is included, followed by an in-depth revision of the recent developments in both measurement and extraction methods for parabens in the last years (2003-2013). Finally, possible future perspectives in this field are proposed.
Keywords: Cosmetics and health-care products; Determination; Environmental samples; Extraction; Parabens.
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