Synthesis of molecularly imprinted polymers for specific recognition of ellagic acid

Molecular imprinting technique is based on the fact that functional monomers are formed a complex around the template molecule by covalent or non-covalent interactions, and then these interactions are made stable by using cross-linker. By the removal of the template molecule after the synthesis, the template molecule-specific complementary binding sites are formed in the polymeric network. The ellagic acid molecule, which is found in the pomegranate fruit, is known to have antiinflammatory, antiallergic, anti-cancer and antimicrobial properties. In this study, it is aimed to synthesize ellagic acid imprinted polymer (MIP) for isolation of ellagic acid from pomegranate fruit. 4-vinylpyridine was used as functional monomer, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as crosslinker, and Tetramethylethylenediamine (TEMED)/Potassium persulfate (KPS) system as initiator. Molecularly imprinted polymers were synthesized by thermal polymerization. The characterization of the synthesized polymers was done by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The ellagic acid recognition properties of MIP and nonimprinted polymers (NIPs) were tested, dissociation constants were calculated as 7.0 µM for MIP and 9.5 µM with lower affinity for NIP. In the light of the findings, it was concluded that MIP can recognize ellagic acid better than NIP.