蒽醌在高等植物中分布广泛,具有广泛的生物活性。从植物粗提物中分离蒽醌的常规分离程序需要多次提取,浓度,和柱层析步骤。在这项研究中,我们合成了三种茜素(AZ)修饰的Fe3O4纳米颗粒(Fe3O4@AZ,Fe3O4@SiO2-AZ,和Fe3O4@SiO2-PEI-AZ)通过热增溶法。Fe3O4@SiO2-PEI-AZ表现出较强的磁响应性,高甲醇/水分散体,良好的可回收性,蒽醌的高负载能力。为了评估使用Fe3O4@SiO2-PEI-AZ分离各种芳香族化合物的可行性,我们采用分子动力学模拟来预测PEI-AZ在不同甲醇浓度下对各种芳香族化合物的吸附/解吸效果。结果表明,通过调节甲醇/水比,可以有效地从单环和双环芳族化合物中分离蒽醌。然后使用Fe3O4@SiO2-PEI-AZ纳米颗粒从大黄提取物中分离蒽醌。在5%甲醇,所有的蒽醌都被纳米粒子吸附,从而允许它们与粗提取物中的其他组分分离。与常规分离方法相比,该吸附方法具有吸附专一性高的优点,操作简单,节省溶剂。该方法揭示了功能化的Fe3O4磁性纳米颗粒在从复杂的植物和微生物粗提物中选择性分离所需成分的未来应用。
Anthraquinones are widely distributed in higher plants and possess broad biological activities. The conventional separation procedures for isolating anthraquinones from the plant crude extracts require multiple extraction, concentration, and column chromatography steps. In this study, we synthesized three alizarin (AZ)-modified Fe3O4 nanoparticles (Fe3O4@AZ, Fe3O4@SiO2-AZ, and Fe3O4@SiO2-PEI-AZ) by thermal solubilization method. Fe3O4@SiO2-PEI-AZ showed strong magnetic responsiveness, high methanol/water dispersion, good recyclability, and high loading capacity for anthraquinones. To evaluate the feasibility of using Fe3O4@SiO2-PEI-AZ for separating various aromatic compounds, we employed molecular dynamics simulations to predict the adsorption/desorption effects of PEI-AZ for various aromatic compounds in different methanol concentrations. The results showed that the anthraquinones could be efficiently separated from the monocyclic and bicyclic aromatic compounds by adjusting the methanol/water ratio. The Fe3O4@SiO2-PEI-AZ nanoparticles were then used to separate the anthraquinones from the rhubarb extract. At 5% methanol, all the anthraquinones were adsorbed by the nanoparticles, thus allowing their separation from other components in the crude extract. Compared with the conventional separation methods, this adsorption method has the advantages of high adsorption specificity, simple operation, and solvent saving. This method sheds light on the future application of functionalized Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles to selectively separate desired components from complex plant and microbial crude extracts.