Optimization of Magnetic and Paper-Based Molecularly Imprinted Polymers for Selective Extraction of Charantin in Momordica charantia

Charantin is a mixture of alpha-sitosterol and stigmastadienol glucosides, which effectively lowers high blood glucose. Novel molecularly imprinted polymers coated magnetic nanoparticles (Fe3O4@MIPs) and filter paper (paper@MIPs) were synthesized by sol-gel polymerization to selectively extract charantin. beta-sitosterol glucoside was selected as a template for imprinting a specific recognition owing to its larger molecular surface area than that of 5,25-stigmastadienol glucoside. Factorial designs were used to examine the effects of the types of porogenic solvents and cross-linkers on the extraction efficiency and imprinting factor before investigating other factors (for example, amounts of template and coated MIPs, and types of substrates for MIP immobilization). Compared to traditional liquid-liquid extraction, the optimal Fe3O4@MIP-based dispersive micro-solid phase extraction and paper@MIP extraction provided excellent extraction efficiency (87.5 +/- 2.1% and 85.0 +/- 2.9%, respectively) and selectivity. Charantin was well separated, and a new unidentified sterol glucoside was observed using the developed high-performance liquid chromatography with diode-array detection (Rs = 2.0, n > 16,400). The developed methods were successfully utilized to extract and quantify charantin from M. charantia fruit powder and herbal products. Moreover, these methods are rapid (<10 min), inexpensive, simple, reproducible, and environmentally friendly.

Automated summary

In this study, novel magnetic nanoparticles Fe3O4@MIPs and filter paper@MIPs were synthesized by sol-gel polymerization for selective extraction of charantin. Compared to traditional liquid-liquid extraction, these methods exhibited excellent extraction efficiency and selectivity, and were rapid, inexpensive, simple, reproducible, and environmentally friendly.