In this study, two methods have been applied to the extraction of parabens from aqueous solution these are ionic liquid based aqueous two-phase extraction (IL-ATPS) and ionic liquid based aqueous two-phase extraction in the presence of β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) as the modifier (IL-βCD-ATPS). The IL-βCD-ATPS method consists of 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride, [C4mim][Cl] and β-CD. It is a new, green and simple extraction technique coupled with reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) that was applied to optimize conditions for the phase separation of parabens in water samples. The IL-βCD-ATPS method shows higher losses for water content compared to the IL-ATPS method resulting in a higher preconcentration factor and a higher distribution coefficient. A lower limit of detection of parabens in water samples was demonstrated by the IL-βCD-ATPS method. To conclude, the IL-βCD-ATPS method is superior to the IL-ATPS method for the determination of parabens in water samples. It is an economically viable approach when using β-CD because it improves the performance of the ATPS method dramatically. In addition, this chemical is cheap and non-toxic to the environment.
