Synthesis of Molecular Imprinting Solid Phase Extraction (MI-SPE) for Quercetin Purification as Active Compound in Plant Extract

Abstract

Quercetin is natural flavonoid that has been widely studied and is known to have a biological activity such as antitumor, anti-inflammatoryandanti-cancer. The process of purifying active compounds from plants requires long stages and the uses of copious amounts of solvent. To reduce the solvent requirement as a form of green chemistry, a Solid Phase Extraction (SPE) isolation method was developed using molecularly imprinted polymers (MIP) technique. This study aimed to synthesize and characterized molecularly imprinted polymer for recognition of quercetine in Plant extract using acrylamide as the functional monomer in acetonitrile: methanol as a porogenic solvent. The research method used include synthesis of MIP sorbent using bulk polymerization method continue with characterization of MIP sorbent and finally applying the sorbent on purification of quercetin from plant extract. The result showed that MI-SPE had an adsorption capacity of 190.37 mg/g and selective to quercetin against another flavonoid compound such as luteolin and genistein by comparing its imprinting factor. FTIR spectra revealed that polymerization process has completed by absences of the vinyl peak. Based on that, MI-SPE made from acrylamide potential to be used as extraction material for quercetin purificationfrom a plant extract of Plectranthus scutellarioides.