An Overview of Paclitaxel and Molecular Imprinted Polymers Capped with Quantum Dots as an Alternative Approach for Paclitaxel Extraction and Detection

Paclitaxel (Taxol) is a drug that belongs to the class of compounds called Taxane. It is a strong and potent chemotherapeutic drug that inhibits the growth of certain types of cancer cells; however, its abundance is very low, and various types of methodologies have been implemented to extract paclitaxel from the bark of different plants and herbs. The molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) could be the best alternative to purify the paclitaxel molecule. MIPs have become an attractive solution for the selective and fine-tuned determination of target templates in complex forms where other comparable and relevant structural compounds could coexist. Implementation of quantum dots in MIPs improves their extraction features due to the presence of distinct functional sites. Quantum dots can be employed to modulate the size, detectability, and state of the imprinted materials, depending on the selected application. This review aims to summarize and illustrate the modern and innovative strategies based on the aggregation of MIPs with quantum dots. Quantum dot embedded MIPs can be exploited for simultaneous extraction, preconcentration, and detection of paclitaxel obtained from various sources.