Preparation and Characteristics of Esculin‐Imprinted Polymers

Four molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) were prepared in MeOH with esculin (=6,7‐dihydroxycoumarin 6‐(β‐D ‐glucopyranoside)=6‐(β‐D ‐glucopyranosyloxy)‐7‐hydroxy‐2H‐1‐benzopyran‐2‐one) as the imprinted molecule, methacrylic acid (=2‐methylprop‐2‐enoic acid; MAA), acrylamide (=prop‐2‐enamide; AM), 4‐vinylpyridine (=4‐ethenylpyridine; 4‐VP), or 2‐vinylpyridine (=2‐ethenylpyridine; 2‐VP) as the functional monomer, respectively, as well as ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (=2‐methylprop‐2‐enoic acid ethane‐1,2‐diyl ester; EGDMA) as the cross‐linking agent. The interaction between the template and the functional monomers was investigated by fluorescence and UV spectrophotometry, respectively, which revealed the presence of esculin/monomer complexes in the stoichiometric ratio 1 : 2 in the pre‐polymerization mixture. The resultant polymers were studied in equilibrium binding experiments to evaluate the recognition ability and the binding capacity towards esculin. The results showed that MIP₁, prepared with MAA as the functional monomer, exhibited advantageous characteristics of high binding capacity, optimal imprinting effect, and good selectivity towards esculin. The Scatchard analysis indicated that there are two types of binding sites in MIP₁, and its binding parameters including the apparent maximum numbers of binding sites and the dissociation constants were calculated. Finally, by packing an SPE column (SPE=solid‐phase extraction) with MIP₁, the esculin was separated and enriched successfully by this sorbent from samples of Cortex fraxini, and the average recovery was up to 74.7%.