Thermosensitive and magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers for selective recognition and extraction of aristolochic acid I

Recently, the natural compound of aristolochic acid I (AAI) has attracted wide attentions due to its strong nephrotoxicity and carcinogenicity. However, the extraction of AAI based on conventional molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) are tedious with extensive eluent, causing secondary pollution and poor regeneration. Herein, thermosensitive and magnetic MIPs (TMMIPs) were synthesized by a surface imprinting method, which achieved thermosensitive capture/release of AAI, along with rapid magnetic separation, significantly shortening the elution time and reducing organic-solvent consumption. TMMIPs with dual-stimuli responses exhibited superior affinity, selectivity, kinetics, and regeneration ability towards AAI. TMMIPs were applied to analyze AAI in Houttuynia cordata via dispersive solid-phase extraction (d-SPE) coupled with high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), yielding satisfactory recoveries (79.03-99.67%) and relative standard deviations (≤5.78%). The limit of detection of AAI was as low as 26.67 µg/L. TMMIPs demonstrate great applicability for fast, selective and eco-friendly extraction of AAI in complicated matrices.