Found this on the internet, didn't test it, and it does not sound so attractive:
CAFFEINE EXTRACTION:
A COMPARISON OF THREE BRANDS OF COFFEE
Derek Butler
Chemistry A1
3\10\98
Caffeine Extraction
My chemistry project is on the comparison of two different brands of coffee caffeine levels. The results were formed by tests that I did involving extracting caffeine
from two different brands of instant coffee.
The first thing I would like to explain is what caffeine actually is. Caffeine is a stimulant that occurs in several plants widely distributed throughout the world. It is an
important ingredient in many beverages and in several drugs. The average cup of coffee or tea contains 100 to 150 milligrams of caffeine, and a 12-ounce bottle of cola
contains about 35 to 55 mg of caffeine.
Among these facts is, caffeine is one of the worlds most widely used drugs. Anthropologists say that they used it as far back as the Stone Age. It is in one of the
groups of stimulants called methylxanthine, or xanthine, which naturally occurs in plants. You’d be surprised to know that beverages made from nuts, seeds or leaves of
these plants are major sources of caffeine. An example is coffee made from the Coffea arabica plant; soft drinks, like pepsi or coke, made from Kola nuts; and tea made
from the leaves of Thea sinensis.
Caffeine is an alkaloid. It is useful both socially and medically because of it’s important effects on the brain, kidney, heart and respiratory system. Caffeine stimulates
the nervous system and is helpful when treating cases of poisoning caused by central depressants such as alcohol or morphine. It is also used in conjunction with an ergot
alkaloid, to relieve the pain of a migraine; this is accomplished by reducing the diameter of the cerebral blood vessels. This reduces the flow of blood to the brain,
relieving the pressure.
Caffeine increases the flow of urine but is not used medically for this, partially because it isn’t the most effective way to accomplish this effort. The drug stimulates
the heart and relaxes the smooth muscle, especially the bronchial muscle.
Some toxic effects of caffeine are insomnia, over excitement, mild delirium, sensory disturbances (ringing in ears, flashes of light), restlessness, disordered beating of
the heart. No deaths have been reported because of caffeine overdose.
My experiment involved the extraction of caffeine from two different brands of coffee, as well as a comparison to see which contained the most caffeine. I was
interested in which had the most caffeine because I wanted to know if the brand name made a difference.
The first thing I did was research on caffeine, and it’s extraction process. This helped me understand caffeine better as well. For the research I used the Internet, an
encyclopedia, and one of the brown lab project books in the library.
The next step was to gather all the materials I would need for the project. These materials were; a beaker, Buchner funnel; vacuum flask; filter paper; separatory
funnel; two brands of coffee; lead acetate and chloroform.
The procedure for the caffeine extraction is as follows. (1.) I added 15 grams of instant coffee into 600-ml beaker, and added 20 ml of distilled water. It looked a lot
like coffee (surprise) (2.) I boiled the mixture for twenty minutes. The entire lab smelled like a cup of coffee. (3.) I then added 25 ml of lead acetate solution. The
mixture gained a creamy look, like when you add creamer. (4.) I then boiled it for 5 minutes. The solution boiled over easily, the lead acetate reacted strongly. (5.) The
fifth step was to filter the solution that I just boiled. This took forever, approximately four hours. The filtrate left was a clear with a brownish tint. The stuff left on the
filter was thick and brown. It had to be scooped out occasionally because it would build up and nothing would filter. Also occasionally the filter would start to bubble and
that would mean you had to replace the filter paper before it ripped. (6.) I poured the filtered liquid into a seperatory funnel. Very expensive, and I had to be careful. (7.)
I added chloroform, 30-ml, under the hood. Chloroform is very bad to breathe so I had to be very careful so I wouldn’t die. Not a nice thing to think about. (8.) Shake
the mixture in a seperatory funnel. Slowly the chloroform that contained the caffeine sunk to the bottom and the brownish liquid went to the top. (9.) Repeat steps 7,and
8. (10.) Combine the two containers of chloroform and put in a steam bath, under the hood. This was because when the chloroform evaporated, the caffeine crystals
would remain. The evaporated gas is deadly so I had to be careful again not to breathe the gas.
Those were the steps, but the results weren’t as spectacular as I thought they might be. This could have been because of many things such as heating the solution
containing chloroform too fast. Or it could have been a wrong measurement, but there are a lot of things that can go wrong in an experiment like caffeine extraction.
And of course the results and answer to the question, which contained the most caffeine. It turned out that Maxwell House appeared to have a little more than
Taster’s Choice, not much but a little more. Instant coffee can contain anywhere from 40 to 108 mgrs.
