A Simple and Green Microextraction Procedure for Extraction of Morin in Food and Beverages Using Ionic Liquid Nail Altunay 1 & Adil Elik 1 & Ramazan Gürkan 1 Received: 20 December 2018 /Accepted: 15 April 2019 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019 Abstract In this study, a practical and rapid microextraction procedure based on ionic liquid (IL) was proposed for the spectrophotometric determination of morin (2-(2,4-dihydroxyphenyl)-3,5,7-trihydroxychromen-4-one) in foods and beverages. The extraction of morin from the sample matrix was carried out as follows. Firstly, a chelate complex of the morin with Ni(II) was formed in presence of citrate buffer of pH 5.5. Then, 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide, [C 6 mim] [Tf 2 N], as extracting IL was added to the sample solution. The complex formed was attached to the microspheres of the [C 6 mim] [Tf 2 N] using vortex, finally separated and extracted from aqueous medium by centrifugation. The main variables affecting extraction efficiency were investigated and optimized. Under optimized conditions, the proposed method exhibits a linear working range of 17.5–550 μgL -1 with a sensitivity enhancement of 126-fold. Furthermore, the detection limit, relative standard deviations (RSD%, n 5), and total extraction time were 5.3 μgL -1 , 1.9%, and 8 min with a recovery ranging from 91.8 to 103.6%, respectively. Following the repeatability and reproducibility studies, the method was successfully applied to the trace analysis of morin in various food and beverages. Keywords Morin . Extraction . Spectrophotometry . Antioxidant . Foods . Beverages Introduction Flavonoids are polyphenolic compounds commonly found in vegetables, red wine, fruits, and beverages (Kokulnathan et al. 2018). In addition, flavonoids have various useful pharmaco- logical properties such as anti-oxidation, anti-viral and anti- inflammatory activities, and potential therapeutic agents (Arancibia et al. 2017). Flavonoids are thought to be helpful in the prevention of cancer diseases due to the formation of free radicals (Masek et al. 2014 ). Morin (2-(2,4- dihydroxyphenyl)-3,5,7-trihydroxychromen-4-one) is an im- portant bioactive compound that can interact with nucleic acids, enzymes, and proteins (Šeruga and Tomac 2017). Also, with the potent antioxidant and metal ion chelating ca- pacity, morin possesses various biological and biochemical effects including anti-tumor, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, antiallergic, and cardioprotective activities (Yola et al. 2014). Epidemiological studies show that adequate intake of flavonoid-rich foods may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease and some cancers (Varghese et al. 2016). Therefore, the development of a simple, fast, and green analytical method for the determination of morin in foods and beverages is an important analytical issue. Currently, the determination of morin in different samples has been often performed using analytical techniques such as chromatography (Wang et al. 2005), spectrofluorometry (Liu et al. 2012), gas chromatography (Proestos et al. 2006), elec- trochemical analysis (Wang et al. 2012; Wu et al. 2007; Masek et al. 2011), capillary electrophoresis (Prasongsidh and Skurray 1998), and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) (Serbia and Stefana 2009). The above-mentioned an- alytical techniques can provide better selectivity, but they cause some disadvantages such as complex operational pro- cedure, time consumption, and expensive equipment. Considering the cost of analysis and ease of use, ultraviolet- visible (UV-vis) spectrophotometry is the most attractive tech- nique. However, the limit of quantification (LOQ) is not Highlights • Morin is a flavone with anti-oxidant properties. • Extraction of morin in foods and beverages were performed using IL. • The method was proved to be practical, cheap, sensitive, and green. • The morin as Ni(II)-chelate complex was selectively monitored at 360 nm. * Nail Altunay naltunay@cumhuriyet.edu.tr 1 Faculty of Sciences, Department of Chemistry, Cumhuriyet University, TR-58140 Sivas, Turkey Food Analytical Methods https://doi.org/10.1007/s12161-019-01514-7