Selective extraction of berberine from Cortex Phellodendri using polydopamine-coated magnetic nanoparticles

A new extraction agent featuring dopamine self-polymerized on magnetic Fe3 O4 nanoparticles has been successfully synthesized and evaluated for the SPE of berberine from the extract of the traditional Chinese medicinal plant, Cortex Phellodendri. The nanoparticles prepared possessed a core-shell structure and showed super-paramagnetism. It was found that these polydopamine-coated nanoparticles exhibited strong and selective adsorption for berberine. Among the chemical components present in C. Phellodendri, only berberine was adsorbed by the nanoparticles and extracted by a following SPE procedure. Various conditions such as the amount of polydopamine-coated nanoparticles, desorption solvent, desorption time and equilibrium time were optimized for the SPE of berberine. The purity of berberine extracted from C. Phellodendri was determined to be as high as 91.3% compared with that of 9.5% in the extract. The established SPE protocol combined advantages of highly selective enrichment with easy magnetic separation, and proved to be a facile efficient procedure for the isolation of berberine. Further, the prepared polydopamine-coated magnetic nanoparticles could be reused for multiple times, reducing operational cost. The applicability and reliability of the developed SPE method were demonstrated by isolating berberine from three different C. Phellodendri extracts. Recoveries of 85.4-111.2% were obtained with relative standard deviations ranging from 0.27-2.05%.