New type of nanosorbent synthesized for extraction of medicines

Iranian researchers from Bu-Ali Sina University of Hamedan succeeded in introducing and synthesizing a sorbent for selective extraction of drugs by using naproxen drug as a model. In the absence of expensive but precise devices such as HPLC, this method can be considered an appropriate and applicable candidate to detect highly small amounts of drugs. In this research, a magnetic sorbent was synthesized at nanometric scale. The surface of the synthesized sorbent was coated with a new molecular cast polymer for selective extraction of naproxen drug in the presence of its other metabolites. All effective parameters on adsorption process were also optimized to obtain the optimal conditions. Results showed that very small amounts of this drug could be measured by using the sorbent before pre-concentration process through spectrofluorometer device. The amount of naproxen drug was measured successfully in the urines of volunteers who had consumed the drug under the surveillance of a doctor to investigate the performance of the proposed method in the analysis of biological samples. To this end, the researchers firstly synthesized carbon nanotubes modified with magnetic nanoparticles and coated magnetized carbon nanotubes with a new synthetic polymer. They next characterized the synthetic nanoparticles and carried out optimization tests. They also investigated the ability of the synthetic sorbent in the extraction of naproxen drug existing in biological samples. This sorbent can be directly used in the diagnosis of drug consumption in medical industries. It also can be used indirectly in the production of various types of selective sorbents for different medicines and drugs, and in medical or police diagnosis. Results of the research have been published in details in The Analyst, vol. 138, issue 16, 21 August 2013, pp. 4542-4549.