Magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers for spectrophotometric quantification of curcumin in food

Herein, we present a simple and rapid method for monitoring curcumin in food samples using a magnetic molecularly imprinted technique combined with ultraviolet–visible (UV–Vis) spectrophotometry. Magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers (mag-MIPs) were first synthesized by fabricating MIPs on to the surface of Fe 3 O 4 nanobeads using curcumin as a template and methacrylic acid as a functional monomer. The obtained mag-MIPs were evaluated in detail with different techniques (such as binding isotherm, Scatchard analysis, and selectivity) and various adsorption experiments. Finally, mag-MIPs were constructed and UV–Vis spectrophotometry was used to quantify curcumin under optimized conditions. Good recoveries between 79.37% and 88.89% were obtained with the limits of detection and quantification of 1.31 and 4.38   μg/mL, respectively.