CONCLUSION

In this experiment, the caffeine was extracted from the tea bag. The
caffeine was evaporated and appeared in yellowish form. The amount of
caffeine in a tea bag is ______. The melting point of caffeine is 228.6 .
The percentage yield of caffeine is _____%.

QUESTIONS AND ANWERS

1. Outline a separation scheme for isolating caffeine from tea

(Experiment 11A or Experiment 11B). Use a flowchart similar in
format to that shown in Technique 2.
 1. Why was the sodium carbonate added in Experiment 11B? Why was
calcium carbonate added in Experiment 11A?
Both of sodium carbonate and calcium carbonate was added in the
two experiments to form a salt derivative of the tannin compounds.
2. The crude caffeine isolated from tea has a green tinge. Why?
The brown colour of tea solution is due to flavonoid pigments,
chlorophylls and their respective oxidation products. Although
chlorophyll is soluble in methylene chloride, most other substances
in the tea are not. Therefore, the crude caffeine still has a green
tinge.
3. What are some possible explanations for why the melting point of
your isolated caffeine may be lower than the literature value (236

)?

The melting point of the isolated caffeine was lower than the

literature value, (236 ) because the product was not pure. This

because, some of the substances in tea solution are soluble in

methylene chloride. When extracting the two layers to get the
caffeine, there is the small amount of aqueous mixture (dark brown
colour) mixing with methylene chloride. The equipments also used
in the experiment are not clean which may cause contamination to
the product.
4. What would happen to the caffeine if the sublimation step were
performed at atmospheric pressure?
The sublimation at atmospheric pressure would require additional
heat and some of the caffeine might decompose. There are a few
reasons for lowering the pressure in general. The reason are less
heat is required (the caffeine will sublime at a low temperature) and
the sample collected will tend to be of better quality.

REFENCES
CO2