Simultaneous and sensitive detection of methylparaben and its metabolites by using molecularly imprinted solid-phase microextraction fiber array technique.

BACKGROUND: Methylparaben (MP), a commonly used antibacterial preservative, is widely used in personal care products, foods, and pharmaceuticals. MP and its metabolites are easy to enter the water environment, and their exposure and accumulation have negative effects on the ecological environment and human health, and have endocrine disrupting activity and potential physiological toxicity. It is still the primary issue of environmental analysis and ecological risk assessment to develop simple and reliable methods for simultaneous sensitive detection of these compounds in environmental water. RESULTS: In this paper, a flexible molecularly imprinted fiber array strategy is proposed for simultaneous enrichment and detection of trace MP and its four main metabolites. The experimental results showed that the three-fiber imprinted fiber array constructed by MP imprinted fiber had the best effect on the simultaneous enrichment of these five target analytes. The enrichment capacity of the imprinted fiber array was 214-456 times, 314-1201 times and 38-685 times that of commercial PA, PDMS and PDMS/DVB fiber arrays, respectively. The limit of detection (LOD) of this method was 0.033 µg L-1. The spiked recovery rate was 86.78-113.96 %, and RSD was less than 9.17 %. In addition, this molecularly imprinted SPME fiber array has good stability, long service life and can be used repeatedly at least 100 times. SIGNIFICANCE: This molecularly imprinted fiber array strategy can flexibly assemble different molecularly imprinted SPME fibers together, effectively improve the enrichment ability and detection sensitivity, and achieve simultaneous selective enrichment and detection of several analytes. This is an easy, efficient and reliable method for monitoring several trace analytes simultaneously in intricate environmental matrices.

Advances in Molecular Imprinting Technology for the Extraction and Detection of Quercetin in Plants.

Quercetin is a kind of flavonoid compound, which has antioxidative, anti-aging and anti-cancer effects, so it is of great importance to study the efficient extraction and highly sensitive detection of quercetin. Molecular imprinting technology has remarkable selectivity and resistance to complex matrix interference, which is often used for extracting quercetin. The methods of molecular imprinted solid phase extraction, molecularly imprinted microsphere extraction, molecularly imprinted electrochemical sensor recognition and molecularly imprinted composite material extraction of quercetin from plant samples were discussed in detail. This review provides valuable information on efficient and sensitive methods for separating and purifying quercetin in plants. It also provides a technical reference for further investigation of the separation and analysis of active ingredients in natural products.