DOI: https://doi.org/10.55373/mjchem.v25i5.46

Keywords: Alpha mangostin; molecular imprinted polymers; bulk polymerization; precipitation polymerization

Abstract

Alpha mangostin is a xanthone compound in the mangosteen rind, which has pharmacological activities such as antioxidant, anticancer, and antiinflammatory. There are many xanthone derivatives in the mangosteen rind, but each compound has different benefits. An effort is needed to obtain alpha mangostin compounds selectively. The use of a molecular imprinted polymers material as a sorbent is able to effectively separate the target compound from a sample with a complex matrix. The aim of the research was to synthesize imprinted polymers with alpha mangostin as a molecule template by bulk and precipitation techniques. In this study the synthesis of alpha mangostin imprinted polymers using methacrylic acid as a functional monomer, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as a crosslinker, benzoyl peroxide as an initiator, and acetonitrile as a porogen. The volume of porogen used in the bulk technique is 10 mL and the precipitation technique is 20 mL. As a comparison, a control polymer was synthesized using the same procedure, but without the presence of a template molecule. Physical characterization by FTIR and SEM, and retention characterization included adsorption capacity and imprinting factor (IF). The results obtained indicate that the synthesis of molecular imprinted polymers has been successfully carried out using bulk and precipitation techniques. The adsorption capacity of the bulk technique is 11.214 mg.g-1 and the IF value is 1.78, while the adsorption capacity of the precipitation technique is 11.767 mg.g-1 and the IF value is 2.87.