Molecularly imprinted polymers and capillary electrophoresis for sensing phytoestrogens in milk

摘要

Dairy cow feed contains, among other ingredients,soybeans, legumes, and clover, plants that are rich inphytoestrogens. Several publications have reported apositive influence of phytoestrogens on human health;however, several unfavorable effects have also beenreported. In this work, a simple, selective, and ecofriendlymethod of phytoestrogen isolation based onthe technique of noncovalent molecular imprinting wasdeveloped. Genistein was used as a template, and dopaminewas chosen as a functional monomer. A layerof molecularly imprinted polymers was created in amicrotitration well plate. The binding capability andselective properties of obtained molecularly imprintedpolymers were investigated. The imprinted polymersexhibited higher binding affinity toward chosen phytoestrogenthan did the nonimprinted polymers. Aselectivity factor of 6.94 was calculated, confirmingsatisfactory selectivity of the polymeric layer. The applicabilityof the proposed sensing method was testedby isolation of genistein from a real sample of bovinemilk and combined with micellar electrokinetic capillarychromatography with UV–visible detection