Superhydrophilic molecularly imprinted polymers based on a water-soluble functional monomer for the recognition of gastrodin in water media

In this study, the first successfully developed superhydrophilic molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) for gastrodin recognition have been described. MIPs were prepared via the bulk polymerization process in an aqueous solution using alkenyl glycosides glucose (AGG) as the water-soluble functional monomer. The non-imprinted polymers (NIPs) were also synthesized using the same method without the use of the template. The dynamic water contact angles and photographs of the dispersion properties confirmed that the molecularly imprinted polymers displayed excellent superhydrophilicity. The results demonstrated that the MIPs exhibited high selectivity and an excellent imprinting effect. A molecularly imprinted solid phase extraction (MISPE) method was established. Optimization of various parameters affecting MISPE was investigated. Under the optimized conditions, a wide linear range (0.001-100.0 μg mL−1) and low limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) (0.03 and 0.09 ng mL−1, respectively) were achieved. When compared with the NIPs, higher recoveries (90.5% to 97.6%) of gastrodin with lower relative standard deviations values (below 6.4%) using high performance liquid chromatography were obtained at three spiked levels in three blank samples. These results demonstrated one efficient, highly selective and environmentally-friendly MISPE technique with excellent reproducibility for the purification and pre-concentration of gastrodin from an aqueous extract of Gastrodia elata roots.