Molecularly imprinted polymer for selective extraction and simultaneous determination of four tropane alkaloids from Przewalskia tangutica Maxim. fruit extracts using LC-MS/MS

A class-specific molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) for selective extraction and preconcentration of four tropane alkaloids has been successfully prepared by precipitation polymerization using anisodine (ASD) as the template, methacrylic (MAA) as the functional monomer, trimethylolpropane trimethacrylate (TRIM) as the crosslinker and acetonitrile as the porogen. The performances of the MIPs and the non-molecularly imprinted polymers (NIPs) were evaluated in terms of selective recognition capacity, adsorption isotherms and adsorption kinetics. The results indicated that the MIPs exhibited significant specific recognition toward TAs with a large adsorption capacity. To testify the feasibility of MIP in real sample preparation, the obtained MIPs were applied as the selective sorbents for the solid-phase extraction of four TAs in Przewalskia tangutica Maxim. Under optimized conditions, a rapid, convenient and efficient method for the determination of four TAs in Przewalskia tangutica Maxim. fruit samples was established by class-specific MIPs based MISPE coupling with high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The method gave excellent recoveries (82.1-102%) and precision (RSDs < 5%, n = 5) for Przewalskia tangutica Maxim. fruit extracts spiked at three concentration levels (50, 100, 200 mu g L-1). The results demonstrated that the TAs in the extracts could be separated and purified through MIP-SPE from Przewalskia tangutica Maxim.