Quercetin molecularly imprinted polymers: preparation, recognition characteristics and properties as sorbent for...

Area of Science:

• Polymer Chemistry
• Analytical Chemistry
• Biochemistry

Background:

• Molecular imprinted polymers (MIPs) are synthetic receptors with tailored binding sites.
• Quercetin, a prevalent flavonoid, possesses significant biological activities.
• Efficient methods for quercetin extraction and analysis are crucial for natural product research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop molecular imprinted polymers (MIPs) for selective quercetin recognition.
• To investigate the impact of synthetic parameters on MIP performance.
• To apply MIPs as a solid-phase extraction (SPE) sorbent for quercetin in complex matrices.

Main Methods:

• Thermal polymerization using quercetin as a template, acrylamide (AA) as a functional monomer, and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EDMA) as a cross-linker in tetrahydrofuran (THF).
• Characterization of MIPs using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM).
• Evaluation of binding properties and selectivity through Scatchard analysis and competitive binding assays with rutin and catechol.

Main Results:

• MIPs with homogeneous binding sites were successfully synthesized.
• Optimized MIPs demonstrated high affinity and selectivity for quercetin over structurally similar compounds.
• MIPs effectively served as an SPE sorbent for quercetin enrichment in Cacumen Platycladi samples.

Conclusions:

• The developed MIPs exhibit excellent molecular recognition capabilities for quercetin.
• MIP-based SPE provides a promising and novel approach for the enrichment and determination of quercetin and other flavonoids.
• This method holds potential for analyzing bioactive compounds in natural products.