The above experimental results demonstrated the ability of the developed SDS-MEKC method for the fast and sensitive detection of e-caprolactam, melamine and urea in povidone powders. The separation conditions were optimized to improve the resolution of povidone and melamine. Paracetamol was used as an injec- tion marker to compensate for run-to-run drifts in the migration times. The running buffer consisted of 50 mM phosphate buffer (pH 6.9-7.1) with 69 mM SDS and the separations were performed at 22 °C. The proposed method can therefore be employed as a rou- tine method for the detection and identification of illegally added e-caprolactam, melamine and urea in povidone products.