Magnetic molecularly imprinted polymer for the selective extraction of hesperetin from the dried pericarp of Citrus reticulata Blanco.

In present study, novel magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers for hesperetin were successfully prepared by surface molecular imprinting method using functionalized Fe3O4 particles as the magnetic cores. Hesperetin as the template, N-Isopropylacrylamide as the functional monomer, ethylene glycol dimethyl acrylate as the crosslinker, 2,2-azobisisobutyonnitrile as initiator and acetonitrile-methanol (3:1, v/v) as the porogen were applied in the preparation process. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscope, x-ray diffraction and vibrating sample magnetometry were applied to characterize the magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers. The adsorption experiments indicated that the magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers performed high selective recognition property to hesperetin. The selectivity experiment indicated that the adsorption capacity and selectivity of polymers to hesperetin was higher than that of luteolin, baicalein and ombuin. Furthermore, the magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers were employed as adsorbents for extraction and enrichment of hesperetin from the dried pericarp of Citrus reticulata Blanco. The recoveries of hesperetin in the dried pericarp of Citrus reticulata Blanco ranged from 90.5% to 96.9%. The linear range of 0.15-110.72 µg/mL was obtained with correlation coefficient of greater than 0.9991. The limit of detection and quantification of the proposed method was 0.06 µg/mL and 0.15 µg/mL, respectively. Based on three replicate measurements, intra-day RSD was 0.71% and inter-day RSD was 2.31%. These results demonstrated that the prepared magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers were proven to be an effective material for the selective adsorption and enrichment of hesperetin from natural medicines, fruits and et al.