Recovery of Berry Natural Products Using Pyrene‐Based MOF Solid Phase Extraction

Abstract

This work introduces a novel method of recovering bioactive berry natural products (BNPs) using solid phase extraction with metal‐organic frameworks (MOF‐SPE). Two pyrene‐based MOFs with different structural topologies, Al‐PyrMOF and Zr‐NU‐1000, were evaluated for their ability to capture and desorb BNPs, including ellagic acid, quercetin, gallic acid, and p‐coumaric acid. Time‐dependent BNP uptake via dispersive SPE revealed that NU‐1000 outperformed Al‐PyrMOF in capturing all BNPs. Our findings show NU‐1000 demonstrated a higher and more consistent BNP capture profile, achieving over 90 % capture of all BNPs within 36 h, with only a 9 % variation between the most and least effectively captured BNPs. In contrast, Al‐PyrMOF, displayed a staggered uptake profile, with a significant 53 % difference in capture efficiency between the most and least effectively captured BNP. However, when a BNP mixture was used at a loading concentration of 50 μg/mL, Al‐PyrMOF outperformed NU‐1000, capturing over 70 % of all BNPs. Al‐PyrMOF also exhibited improved BNP recovery, with a minimum of two‐fold greater amount recovered for all BNPs. Further testing with a BNP mixture at a concentration of 15 μg/mL demonstrated that Al‐PyrMOF efficiently concentrated all BNPs, achieving a maximum extraction factor of 2.71 observed for quercetin. These findings highlight the use of Al‐PyrMOF as a MOF‐SPE sorbent for recovering bioactive BNPs.