Preparation of a novel molecularly imprinted polymer for the highly selective extraction of baicalin

The selective extraction of baicalin is important to its quality control especially when the matrices are complicated. In this work, a novel molecularly imprinted polymer was prepared for the selective extraction of baicalin in herbs. The molecularly imprinted polymer was synthesized by the copolymerization of 4-vinyl pyridine and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate in the presence of baicalin by a precipitation polymerization method. After the optimization of parameters for molecularly imprinted polymer preparation, including the functional monomer, porogen, sampling solvent, and washing solvent, good selectivity was obtained, with an imprinting factor of about 4, which is much better than that achieved by the bulk-polymerization method. The performances of the prepared molecularly imprinted polymers were systematically investigated, including adsorption kinetics, isotherm experiment, and Scatchard analysis. On the basis of the good adsorptive capability of the prepared molecularly imprinted polymer, it was also applied for the pretreatment of baicalin in Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi. The result showed that most of the matrices were removed and baicalin was selectively enriched.