Exploration of a ternary deep eutectic solvent of methyltriphenylphosphonium bromide/chalcone/formic acid for the selective recognition of rutin and quercetin in Herba Artemisiae Scopariae

Methyltriphenylphosphonium bromide/chalcone/formic acid, a green ternary deep eutectic solvent, was applied as a functional monomer and dummy template simultaneously in the synthesis of a new molecularly imprinted polymer. Ternary deep eutectic solvent based molecularly imprinted polymers are used as a solid-phase extraction sorbent in the separation and purification of rutin and quercetin from Herba Artemisiae Scopariae combined with high-performance liquid chromatography. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and field-emission scanning electron microscopy were applied to characterize the deep eutectic solvent based molecularly imprinted polymers synthesized using different molar ratios of chalcone. The static and competitive adsorption tests were performed to examine the recognition ability of the molecularly imprinted polymers to rutin and quercetin. The ternary deep eutectic solvent consisting of formic acid/chalcone/methyltriphenylphosphonium bromide (1:0.05:0.5) had the best molecular recognition effect. After optimization of the washing solvents (methanol/water, 1:9) and eluting solvents (acetonitrile/acetic acid, 9:1), a reliable analytical method was developed for strong recognition towards rutin and quercetin in Herba Artemisiae Scopariae with satisfactory extraction recoveries (rutin: 92.48%, quercetin: 94.23%). Overall, the chalcone ternary deep eutectic solvent-based molecularly imprinted polymer coupled with solid-phase extraction is an effective method for the selective purification of multiple bioactive compounds in complex samples.