An innovative biocompatible approach for the selective recovery of gallic acid (GA) from actual site olive mill wastewaters (OMWs) by means of Molecularly Imprinted Polymers (MIPs) was developed. Bulky MIPs with a high selectivity for GA were synthesized by a non-covalent approach using methacrylic acid as the functional monomer and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as the crosslinker. Imprinting efficiency was evaluated in different water/ethanol solutions by determining alpha and epsilon parameter, by using pyrogallic acid as the template analogue: the highest GA recognition, both in terms of percentage and of imprinting effect (alpha = 32.7; epsilon = 4.2), was observed in pure ethanol. The efficiency of the developed extraction protocol was evaluated with an actual site OMW: a selective extraction of 80% of pure GA was achieved with high accuracy and precision, as shown by RSD% (4.3%) and recovery values (between 85% and 97%). (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.