EFFICIENT SEPARATION AND PURIFICATION OF EPIGALLOCATECHIN GALLATE (EGCG) BASED ON EGCG-IMPRINTED POLYMER PREPARED WITH CHITOSAN AS MATRIX

A molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP), which was suitable for recognizing epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), was prepared by using EGCG as template molecule and biocompatible chitosan as a functional matrix in aqueous medium. Molecular recognition ability of the EGCG-imprinted polymer (EIP) was evaluated by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The results show that the EIP has a high imprinting factor (1.32) for EGCG and was used to purify EGCG from crude tea polyphenol efficiently. The percentage of EGCG can be improved from 78.6% in crude tea polyphenol (TP) to 90.1% in product and the adsorption quantity per unit can reach 4.02 mg.g(-1). EIP shows potential excellent prospect in the application of separating and purifying EGCG from TP.