Synthesis and Evaluating of Nanoporous Molecularly Imprinted Polymers for Extraction of Quercetin as a Bioactive Component of Medicinal Plants

Abstract

<em>In this work, the template, monomer, and cross-linker with the ratio of 1:8:40 </em><em>were used to synthesize Molecularly Imprinted Polymers (MIPs) for extraction of the bioactive chemical</em><em> compounds from some traditional herbs as a sorbent material. Quercetin, Methacrylic Acid (MAA), Trimethylolpropanetrimethacrylate (TRIM) and Tetrahydrofuran (THF) were used as a template, functional monomer, cross-linker, and porogen, respectively. Polymer particles have been evaluated </em><em>by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), Field Emission Scan Electron Microscopy (FESEM), Transmission</em><em> Electron Microscopy (TEM) and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET). The produced nanoporous MIPs, with a good specific surface area 167.899 m²/g</em><em> comparatively to Non-Imprinted Polymers (NIPs), exhibited a good affinity to quercetin with the binding capacity of 392.08 mg/g in acetonitrile-water (1:1v/v). The results showed that the MIPs can be used as a sorbent. Thus, direct extraction of certain pharmacophoric components from herbal plants is considerable by MIPs technology.</em>