Magnetic MIL-101(Cr)-NH2 nanocomposite for extraction of nine parabens from chili powder and facial toner using LC–MS/MS

Parabens are frequently used preservatives in food and personal care products. These are also termed endocrine disruptors which have the potential to damage the endocrine system Therefore, an easy and facile extraction and detection of parabens are critically important. This work evaluates different magnetic sorbents such as Fe₃O₄@MIL-101(Cr), Fe₃O₄@MIL-101(Cr)@NH₂, and Fe₃O₄@MIL-101(Cr)@SO₃H for magnetic solid phase extraction (MSPE) and further selected Fe₃O₄@MIL-101(Cr)@NH₂ to determine paraben content in chili powder and facial toner samples. Fe₃O₄@MIL-101(Cr)@NH₂ is an efficient sorbent material specially designed for MSPE, which profoundly extracted nine parabens within a short span of just 6 min, driven by π–π interaction and hydrogen bonding. And a detailed optimization and LC–MS/MS analysis was carried out. Fe₃O₄@MIL-101(Cr)@NH₂ exhibited superior extraction efficiency, enabling subsequent quantification via LC–MS/MS. The limit of detection ranged from 0.063 to 0.622 ng mL⁻¹ and limit of quantification of 0.211 to 2.073 ng mL⁻¹ were a good recovery in the range of 76.2%–108%. An effective detection of eight parabens in chili powder and four parabens in facial toner samples was determined indicating that Fe₃O₄@MIL-101(Cr)-NH₂ sorbents are suitable for MSPE.