National Public School, Koramangala

2022-23
Grade: 12
Chemistry Project report

COMPARING CAFFEINE
CONTENT IN DIFFERENT
SAMPLES OF TEA

Name: Shrijani Patil

Class: 12 A
Roll Number: 26

1
 INDEX

Sl. No. Title Page no.

1. Acknowledgement 3
2. Statement of problem 4
3. Objective 4
4. Introduction 5
5. Experiment 6
6. Pictures 8
7. Result 9
8. Limitations 9
9. Conclusion 9
10. Bibliography 10

2
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We would like to express our gratitude to our teachers Padmavathi ma’am and
Vipina ma’am for guiding us throughout this project and helping us when
needed.

We would also like to thank our principal Jyotsna ma’am for giving us this
golden opportunity through which we got a deep insight on our topic.

Lastly, we would also like to thank CBSE and our school National Public
School, Koramangala for this opportunity to learn and develop our knowledge
and skills.

Thank you!

3
 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
Alkaloid Caffeine is responsible for curing headaches, tiredness and lowering
body temperature. Often, physicians are unsure if they should deny caffeine
containing beverages to a patient or not. That is why it is important to study the
caffeine content in tea so that patients can also be given tea that has less
caffeine content in them. As caffeine has many medicinal uses, we could look
into utilising it more in the medicinal field.

OBJECTIVE
To find the amount of caffeine content in each sample of tea and its effect on
taste, and to compare the caffeine content of the different samples of tea.

4
 INTRODUCTION
Tea is the most commonly and widely used beverage in the household. It acts as
a stimulant for central nervous system and skeletal muscles. That is why tea
removes fatigue, tiredness, and headache. It also increases the capacity of
thinking and is used for lowering body temperature. The principal constituent of
tea, which is responsible for all these properties is alkaloid-caffeine. The
amount of caffeine in teal leaves varies from sample to sample. There is a little
doubt that the popularity of the xanthine beverages depends on their stimulant
action, although most people are unaware of any stimulation. The degree to
which an individual is stimulated by caffeine varies from individual to
individual.
The xanthine beverages also create a medical problem. They are dietary of a
stimulant of the CNS. Often, physicians are unsure if they should deny caffeine
containing beverages to a patient or not. Children are more susceptible to
excitation by xanthine than adults. For this reason, tea and coffee should be
excluded from their diet. Even cocoa is of doubtful value. It has a high tannin
content may be as high as 50 mg per cup.
Since our main stress is on the presence of caffeine in xanthine beverages, we
will study and observe the quantity of caffeine varying in different tea leaf
samples.

Pure Caffeine Powder

The most important methylate alkaloid that occurs naturally is caffeine. In its
pure state, it is a white crystalline solid in the form of needles. It is present in
tea leaves up to 3% and can be extracted the first boiling the tea leaves with
water which dissolves many glycoside compounds in addition to caffeine. The
clear solution is then treated with lead acetate to precipitate the glycoside
compounds in the form of lead complex. The clear filtrate is then extracted with
extracts caffeine because it is more soluble in water.

5
 EXPERIMENT

AIM
Compare the caffeine content of the different samples of tea.

MATERIALS REQUIRED
Beakers, conical flasks, heating arrangement, filter paper, funnel, different
samples of tea, calcium carbonate, conc. HCl, sulphuric acid and chloroform

THEORY
● Caffeine is more soluble in chloroform than in water. Therefore, it can be
extracted from the aqueous extract of the tea with chloroform. However,
tannic acid and lead interfere in the extraction and, therefore, these must
be removed first.
● Tannic acid is removed as calcium tannate and lead is removed as lead
sulphate.
● After the removal of tannic acid and lead, caffeine is extracted with
chloroform.
Formula of Caffeine :

6
PROCEDURE
1. Weigh 5g of the given samples of tea leaves.
2. Take 50ml of distilled water in a beaker and boil it. Then add the first
sample of tea leaves to it and boil 10 minutes. Cool and filter the solution.
3. To the filtrate add about 2g of solid calcium carbonate and boil the
contents. Tannic acid gets precipitated as calcium tannate. Separate the
precipitate by filtration.
4. To this filtrate add about 1 ml of dil. H2SO4. Lead gets precipitated as
lead sulphate.
5. Remove the precipitate by filtration and extract the filtrate with
chloroform 3-4 times.
6. Combine the chloroform extracts and remove the solvent by heating it in
a steam bath. The residue left behind is caffeine.
7. Weigh the residue left behind
8. Similarly, determine the amount of caffeine in other samples of tea.

OBSERVATION
Weight of crucible: 74.74g

Sl. Brand name Weight of the tea Weight of caffeine Percentage of

No. of the tea leaves taken obtained caffeine
X (g) Y (g) Y/X *100
1. Lipton 5 0.036 0.72%
2. Organic India 5 0.007 0.014%
3. Tetley 5 0.023 0.46%

INFERENCE
Quantity of Caffeine in Lipton tea is 42mg/ Sample of 5g, which is 0.72%.
Quantity of Caffeine in Organic India tea is 7mg/ Sample of 5g, which is
0.014%.
Quantity of Caffeine in Tetley tea is 26mg/ Sample of 5g, which is 0.46%.

7
PICTURES

8
 RESULT
It is found that the tea sample containing a higher percentage of
caffeine gives a better flavour.

LIMITATIONS
 Different tea bags from the same brand may contain different amounts of
caffeine.
 Test tubes and beakers may not be clean.
 Some amount of the filtrate may remain in the filter paper after filtration or
may evaporate.
 Only one trial was taken for each brand. 

CONCLUSION
Caffeine is a very potent, yet unrecognized drug.  Although there are
benefits to consuming caffeine, there also downsides which indicate
that one should limit their caffeine consumption. Although caffeine is
a common substance found in many foods, beverages, and other
supplements, it is clearly a powerful drug and can be extremely
harmful to the human body if taken in large quantities. Caffeine
consumption should be monitored and limited.

9
 BIBLIOGRAPHY
The following websites were used as sources for this project:
 https://www.icbse.com
 https://www.slideshare.net
 https://www.researchgate.net
 https://www.images.google.com

10