Application of Molecularly Imprinted Polymers Towards Efficient Extraction and Chromatographic Detection of Natural Products

The expanding use of phytopharmaceuticals, as a more safe and efficient remedies for different pharmacological activities and as dietary and nutritional supplements has created the need to have a more eco-friendly, and selective extraction techniques to enhance the economic and environmental greenness of the applied traditional extraction methods. Recently, the application of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs), has grasped the attention in the field of natural products due to their ease of design and preparation with specific recognition cavities that can selectively bind to a target analyte. The present review aims not only to discuss the application of MIPs with the past ten years in the field solid phase extraction of different classes of natural products (NPs) but also their impact on the effectiveness of chromatographic separation and detection will be elaborated. Based on their performance, MIPs represent a promising class of artificial adsorbents that can be commercialized for beneficiary extraction of natural products with much less consumption of solvents and higher selectivity when compared to the traditional types of chromatographic adsorbents besides the possibility of their 3D printing to create more optimized and uniform manifolds to match the different types of extraction and detection applications of natural products (NPs).