Fe3O4 Magnetic Nanoparticles for Cinnamic Acid Extraction from Ramulus Cinnamomi

A facile solid-phase extraction (SPE) method based on bare Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles (Fe3O4 NPs) was developed to capture cinnamic acid (CA) from a well-known traditional Chinese medicine, Ramulus cinnamomi, for high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis. The as-prepared Fe3O4 NPs were characterized via Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). Several parameters that influence CA extraction rate, such as the amount of Fe(3)O(4)NPs, shaking time, methanol content, eluent pH, and elution time, were investigated. The experimental results show that the CA extraction was 86.9% at optimal condition, and the mass yield of CA extraction was found to be 0.00021%. This study demonstrates that the developed CA extraction method is simple, cheap and environmentally friendly. Therefore, the proposed method has a potential for CA separation and purification from complex biological samples.