Abstract
Hydroquinone (HQ) is an phenolic aromatic compound used in cosmetic medicine as skin lightening material since long time ago. Accordingly the several pathological conditions that observed, the use of HQ for this purpose was recently contraindicated. The commonly noted health problem associated with hydroquinone use was contact dermatitis. The present study was designed and conducted to determine the HQ presence and concentrations in ten samples of skin lightening cosmetics available in the local market. GC-MS analysis was employed for detection of HQ qualitatively while HPLC analysis was used as a quantitative analysis for determination of the HQ concentrations in each sample. The results obtained indicated that the overall range of HQ levels in all respected samples ranged from 0.003 9% to 0.14%.