Preparation of a MOF-based molecularly imprinted polymer microsphere by a sol-gel technique and its application to the extraction and separation of aucubin from Eucommia ulmoides

Abstract Development of novel adsorption material for enrichment and separation of the most challenging compounds from plants is interesting. Preparation of a MOF-based aucubin imprinted polymer was performed and it was applied to the extraction and separation of aucubin from Eucommia ulmoides, a Traditional Chinese Medicine. A sol-gel method was utilized to prepared the MIPs and this imprinted material was used as the stationary phase in liquid chromatography to perform separation and extraction of aucubin from plant. Frontal chromatography technique was utilized to SPE application for the polymers. Results indicated that the imprint material (EM@MIP3) obtained under the optimized conditions possessed a high imprinting factor (6.830) and a high selectivity toward the template, with α (selectivity factor) values of 4.931, 4.896 and 3.418 relative to bugle glucoside (BG), plantain glucoside (PG) and geniposide (GP), respectively. The saturated binding capacity for the template on the EM@MIP3 column was 95.16 mg g− 1. When the EM@MIP3 column can be utilized to on-line separation of aucubin from the extract of Eucommia ulmoides, more than 85% purity of aucubin product can be obtained, with a recovery higher than 95%. The proposed method also has a detection limit and a quantitation limit of 0.167 and 0.547 mg kg− 1 in the application to sample analysis, with a high analysis repeatability. In addition, the reusability for the EM@MIP3 polymer was satisfactory. This imprint material is expected to be developed into an efficient adsorption media for the separation and purification of natural product from plants.