Selective Adsorption and Separation of (−)-Epigallocatechin Gallate (EGCG) based on Silica Gel Surface Molecularly Imprinted Polymers

Abstract To separate and enrich EGCG from a mixture of tea catechins, the molecular imprinted polymers (MIPs) were synthesized on silica gel by surface molecular imprinting technique and characterized with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), elemental analysis and scanning electronic microscopy (SEM). MIPs exhibited favorable recognition, better selectivity for EGCG than the other monomers, and the descending order was EGCG, (+)-catechin (C), (−)-epicatechin (EC), (−)-epigallocatechin (EGC), (−)-catechin gallate (CG) and (−)-gallocatechin gallate (GCG). These results demonstrated that MIPs could realize the separation and enrichment of EGCG in real sample.