Cebu Doctors’ University

College of Arts and Sciences

Physical Sciences Department

Name: _________________________________ Date: __________________

Program, Year and Section: ________________ Group No.: _____________

Experiment 3 – Extraction and Purification of Caffeine from Tea

Intended Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this experiment, you will be able to:
1. Extract caffeine from tea leaves using liquid-liquid extraction; and
2. Purify the obtained caffeine using sublimation.

Apparatus and Equipment:

Bunsen burner, beakers, Erlenmeyer flask, stirring rod, funnel, water bath, top loading
balance, separatory funnel

Materials:
chloroform, sodium carbonate, distilled water, tea leaves

In the previous experiment, you were able to purify organic substances using some of the most
common purification techniques, such as recrystallization, sublimation, and liquid-liquid
extraction. Another very important application of these methods, is the isolation of important
compounds from the materials obtained from natural sources, including a lot of medicinally
important compounds, scents, and oils. In this experiment, you will learn about extraction of a
very common and important natural product, caffeine.

First isolated from coffee in 1820, caffeine has become the most widely used legal drug in the
world. It is estimated that ninety percent of those living in the United States use the drug through
the consumption of coffee, tea, soda or over the counter drugs like Vivarin. Caffeine is found
occurring naturally in tea leaves, coffee beans, cola nuts, maté leaves, and the guarana plant.
Caffeine is an alkaloid, meaning that it is an organic molecule containing nitrogen which has
pharmacological effects on humans and animals. Its systematic name 1,3,7-trimethylxanthine.
The chemical structure is shown below.

Commercially, caffeine is obtained as a by-product from the decaffeinating process of coffee. The
list below shows the amount of caffeine in a 7 oz. cup.
Brewed coffee 80-135 mg
Brewed tea 40-60 mg
Espresso 350-460 mg

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Caffeine is a stimulant of the central nervous system, cardiac muscle, and respiratory system. It
also acts as a diuretic. An overdose of caffeine can cause headaches, muscle tremors and
insomnia. Ten grams is considered to be a lethal dose.

When tea is brewed, caffeine is dissolved into the water along with tannins. These tannins are
what give the tea its dark color. Since we are focused on isolating only caffeine, the tannins need
to be removed. The addition of Na2CO3 reacts with the tannins to form a salt. These salts are
soluble in water but are insoluble in an organic solvent such as chloroform. Even though caffeine
is soluble in water to the extent of 1 g per 46 mL, caffeine is more soluble in chloroform to the
extent of 1 g per 10 mL. Therefore, caffeine can be extracted by chloroform from the aqueous
mixture leaving behind the tannin salts. Evaporation of the chloroform leaves behind the crude
caffeine solid.

PROCEDURE:

Preparation of the Brewed Tea

1. Weigh 6 black tea bags. Record the mass in the table below.
2. Place the black tea bags in a 400 mL beaker.
3. Mix 6-7 g sodium carbonate (Na2CO3) and 200 mL water in a separate beaker. Pour this
mixture into the tea bags.
4. Heat the mixture until it boils. Continue heating for 10 minutes, with occasional stirring or
swirling of the mixture. Occasionally push down on the tea bag with a test tube to keep it
as fully submerged in water as possible. Be gentle with this step—don’t break the bags!
5. Allow the mixture to cool to room temperature with the aid of an ice bath.
6. Once cooled, collect the liquid (brewed tea) by filtering it into another beaker.

Extraction of Caffeine
1. Add the brewed tea into a separatory funnel. Make sure that the funnel is closed.
2. Add 10 mL of chloroform into the separatory funnel by pouring it very gently.
3. Stopper the separatory funnel and slosh solution back and forth for 15 seconds. Do not
shake vigorously! Vigorous shaking will form an emulsion which will not separate.
4. Occasionally open the stopcock to release any pressure within the funnel. Be sure funnel
is pointing away from you before opening.
5. Place the separatory funnel upright in a ring stand or funnel holder, remove the stopper
and allow mixture to separate.
• Which layer is the organic layer? (Hint: The density of chloroform is 1.492 g/mL,
while the density of water is 1.00 g/mL.)

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6. Once separated, collect the chloroform layer into an Erlenmeyer flask. Be sure none of
the water layer is transferred.
7. Repeat steps 2-6 using 10 mL of chloroform. Combine the 2 collected chloroform layers.

Evaporating the Solvent and Recording Mass of Caffeine

1. Weigh a clean and empty beaker. Record the mass in the table below.
2. Transfer the collected chloroform layers into this weighed beaker.
3. Place the beaker in a steam bath to evaporate the chloroform.
4. Remove the flask from the steam bath as soon as all the solvent has evaporated,
otherwise you may lose some of the caffeine by sublimation.
5. Dry the outside of the flask with a paper towel, weigh the flask with contents, and record
the mass in the table below.

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 • Describe the color of your obtained caffeine sample. What color should pure
caffeine be?

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Sublimation of Caffeine
1. Cover the beaker with your caffeine with an evaporating dish with the convex side facing
the interior of the beaker.
2. Place ice into the evaporating dish.
3. Heat the beaker in low heat.
4. Cool the beaker without removing the evaporating dish.
5. Scrape the sublimed caffeine onto a tared piece of smooth paper and determine the
weight of caffeine recovered.
• Describe your purified caffeine sample. How is it different from the caffeine
obtained before purification?

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RESULTS:

Mass of the Mass of the

Mass of the Tea Mass of the Percent
Beaker with Extracted
Bags Empty Beaker Recovery
Caffeine Caffeine

𝑀𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝐸𝑥𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝐶𝑎𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑖𝑛𝑒

= 𝑀𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐵𝑒𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑟 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝐶𝑎𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑖𝑛𝑒 − 𝑀𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑚𝑝𝑡𝑦 𝑏𝑒𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑟

𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑒𝑥𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑐𝑎𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑖𝑛𝑒

%𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 = × 100%
𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑡𝑒𝑎 𝑏𝑎𝑔𝑠

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