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EXPERIMENT NO.2

OBJECT: Spectroscopic Determination of Caffeine Content in

Green Tea.
Chemical Required:
Caffeine, Hydrochloric Acid, Lead Acetate, Distilled Water, Sulphuric Acid

APPARATUS:
Beaker, stirrer, pipette, funnel, conical flask, filter paper
THEORY:
Caffeine (1,3,7-trimethylxanthine) belongs to a group of methylxanthines. The widespread
occurrence of caffeine in a variety of plants played a major role in the long-standing popularity
of caffeine-containing products. The most important sources of caffeine are Green Tea, Black
Tea and Coffee.

Caffeine has pharmacological effects on the central nervous system, heart, peripheral and
central vasculature, renal, gastrointestinal and respiratory systems. Due to the widespread
consumption of methylxanthines, in the form of tea, it is important to collect precise
information of their content.

Dr. Asghar Ali Department of Chemistry GCUH

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PROCEDURE

 Wash all the apparatus thoroughly

 Take 1.25 g of Green Tea and poured in 100 ml of boiling water and stirred for 10
minutes.
 Extracts were filtered through filter paper, cooled at a room temperature, diluted to 125
ml with distilled water, and used for spectrophotometric analyses.
 Caffeine determination using the lead acetate solution:
 Now take Green Tea extract (5 ml), HCl (2,5 ml) and Pb (CH3COO) 2 solution (0.5 ml) were mixed
together
 Then diluted to 50 ml with distilled water.
 Then solution was filtered through filter paper.
 Take filtrate (12.5 ml) and H2SO4 (0.2 ml) were combined, diluted to 25 ml with distilled water
and filtered again.
 Then absorbance of the filtrate was measured at 274 nm.
 The content of caffeine (%) was calculated using a standard curve derived from caffeine (0–250
mg/l). All measurements were performed in triplicate.

Result:
The given sample of Green Tea contains caffeine________%.

Dr. Asghar Ali Department of Chemistry GCUH