Determination of cyproheptadine in feeds using molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction coupled with HPLC

• A specific imprinted polymer to cyproheptadine was prepared.
• A MISPE-HPLC method was established to assay cyproheptadine in feeds.
• Significant differences between imprinted materials and common SPE sorbents.
• The limit of detection (LOD) of cyproheptadine was 0.04 mg kg−1.

A novel method was developed for the determination of cyproheptadine in feeds using molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction coupled with high-performance liquid chromatography. The polymers were prepared using cyproheptadine as a template molecule, methacrylic acid as a functional monomer, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as a cross-linking agent, and dichloromethane as a solvent by bulk polymerization. Under the optimum solid-phase extraction conditions, the molecular imprinting cartridge can selectively extract and enrich cyproheptadine from a variety of feeds. Mean recoveries of cyproheptadine from four kinds of feeds spiked at 0.1, 1.0 and 10 mg kg−1 ranged from 85.5% to 96.2%, with intra-day and inter-day relative standard deviation less than 10%. The calibration curve of cyproheptadine was good linear relationship (r > 0.9993) within the range of 0.1–50 μg mL−1. The limit of detection (LOD) and the limit of quantification (LOQ) were 0.04 and 0.1 mg kg−1, respectively.