Preferential adsorption of flavonoids from peanut shell by amino-modified Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles (MNP-NH 2 ).

BACKGROUND: The highly selective capture of individual components of complex systems such as Chinese medicine extracts is a great challenge. With the rapid development of nanoscience, magnetic materials have attracted increased attention as suitable candidates for use in drug transport vehicles.

RESULTS: In this work, amino-modified Fe3 O4 nanoparticles (MNP-NH2 ) have been synthesized and successfully used to selectively isolate luteolin, a type of flavonoid, from peanut shell, coupled with high-performance liquid chromatography. MNP-NH2 were characterized by transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and vibrating sample magnetometer analysis, which showed that the amino functional groups were successfully bound to the surface of the magnetic particles. Adsorption of six different flavonoids by MNP-NH2 showed that the mechanism of adsorption was related to the number of ortho-phenolic hydroxyl groups. The optimized adsorption conditions were extraction for 40 min at 30 °C by single-factor experiments and the final elution conditions were determined to be 5 mL of 20% glacial acetic acid (methanol:water = 60:40) and ultrasonication for 40 min by L9 (34 ) orthogonal test.

CONCLUSION: Based on these findings, we first created a method for separating luteolin from peanut shell extract by MNP-NH2 . This newly developed magnetic method of extracting chemical compounds from herbal foodstuffs and medicines provides new ideas for the utilization of a cash crop. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.