Emerging biosensors in detection of natural products

Abstract

Natural products (NPs) are a valuable source in the food, pharmaceutical, agricultural, environmental, and many other industrial sectors. Their beneficial properties along with their potential toxicities make the detection, determination or quantification of NPs essential for their application. The advanced instrumental methods require time-consuming sample preparation and analysis. In contrast, biosensors allow rapid detection of NPs, especially in complex media, and are the preferred choice of detection when speed and high throughput are intended. Here, we review diverse biosensors reported for the detection of NPs. The emerging approaches for improving the efficiency of biosensors, such as microfluidics, nanotechnology, and magnetic beads, are also discussed. The simultaneous use of two detection techniques is suggested as a robust strategy for precise detection of a specific NP with structural complexity in complicated matrices. The parallel detection of a variety of NPs structures or biological activities in a mixture of extract in a single detection phase is among the anticipated future advancements in this field which can be achieved using multisystem biosensors applying multiple flow cells, sensing elements, and detection mechanisms on miniaturized folded chips.

Keywords: Biosensor; Molecular biosensors; Nanomaterials; Natural products; Rapid detection.

Fig. 1

The chemical structural origin and biosynthetic source of NPs from primary metabolism.

Fig. 2

Physicochemical methods of sensing the biomolecules adopted in biosensing of NPs.

Fig. 3

Types of interactions between the biomolecule (NPs) and biosensor.

Fig. 4

Schematic representation of a luminescent enzyme based biosensor with an optical transducer. Enzymes as sensing elements are coupled with a fluorophore molecule and immobilized on a surface. 1) A solution of the NP is passed over the surface with immobilized enzymes. 2) Target molecules of NPs interact with the enzyme molecules. 3) After washing the unbounded molecules, an exciting wavelength is illuminated and the fluorophore molecules absorb the light and excite 4) Emitted photons are sensed by a luminometer/fluorimeter and further analyzed by analyzing software to validate the identity of target molecules.