Isolation of biochanin A, an isoflavone, and its selective sensing of copper(II) ion

- Isolated isoflavone was utilized as sensor probe in the first time.
- Biochanin A (BnA) an isoflavone of pharmacological interest is used as a sensing probe.
- BnA selectively senses Cu2+ ion [1 × 10−6 M] over other metal ions in ACN-H2O medium at pH 7.1.
- Upon binding to Cu2+ ion quenching of intramolecular charge transfer occurs.
- Mechanism is supported by TD-DFT calculations, ESI-MS and Job's plot.