Rapid Separation of Representative Monomer Compound Rutin From Natural Product by Molecularly Imprinted Macroporous Adsorption Resin

Monomer compounds from natural products are the major source of active pharmaceutical molecules, which provide great opportunities for discovering of new drugs. However, natural products contain a large number of rather complex compounds. It is difficult to obtain high-purity monomer compounds from complex natural products. Herein, we developed molecularly imprinted macroporous adsorption resins (MIRs-PDA) for the selective adsorption of target monomer compounds from natural products. The response surface methodology was employed to optimize the fabrication parameters. The separation performance of MIRs-PDA for the representative monomer compound rutin was thoroughly studied. We found that MIRs-PDA presented large adsorption capacity (107.82 mg/g), high selectivity (selectivity coefficient was 2.90), good repeatability, and reusability. MIRs-PDA can reach 78.5% equilibrium adsorption capacity in 20 min, showing quick binding kinetic behavior. Furthermore, MIRs-PDA showed good selective and specific adsorption performance for rutin from a representative real sample of Fagopyrum tataricum extract solution. The study of the adsorption mechanism showed that the adsorption of rutin on MIRs-PDA was spontaneous and thermodynamically feasible. The kinetic parameters adapted well to the pseudo-second-order kinetic model, and there existed equivalent binding sites in MIRs-PDA. The MIRs-PDA show promising application prospects for the separation of monomer compounds in natural products.