A comparative study of formaldehyde detection using chromotropic acid, acetylacetone and HPLC in cosmetics and household cleaning products.

Chromotropic acid and acetylacetone methods for qualitative determination of formaldehyde were tested in parallel on 48 commercial samples, with high-performance liquid chromotography (HPLC) implemented for quantitative measure. In addition, interference with the detection of formaldehyde was investigated by analyzing 12 other aldehydes and ketones, 7 essential oils and 3 polysorbates. Throughout this comparative study, the disadvantages of the chromotropic acid method, of which 2 variants were used, were delineated and we found that the acetylacetone test proved to be a more efficient screening method for formaldehyde detection in a clinical laboratory.