Isolation of aristolochic acid I from herbal plant using molecular imprinted polymer composited ionic liquid-based zeolitic imidazolate framework-67

Aristolochic acid I is a toxic compound found in the genus of Aristolochia plants, which are commonly used as herbal cough treatment medicines. To remove the aristolochic acid I in extract efficiently and selectively, a molecularly imprinted polymer composed of ethylimidazole ionic liquid-based zeolitic imidazolate framework-67 was synthesized and used as the adsorbent. Under the conditions optimized by the software design expert, the sorbent showed highest adsorption amount of 34.25 mg/g in methanol/water (95:5, v/v) at 39°C for 138 min. The sorbent was then applied to solid phase extraction to isolate aristolochic acid I from the extract of the herbal plant Fibraurea Recisa Pierre. 0.043 mg/g of aristolochic acid I was obtained after the loading, washing, and elution processes. The limit of detection of 2.41 × 10⁻⁵ mg/mL and good recoveries provided evidence for the accuracy of this method.