University of Santo Tomas
Faculty of Pharmacy
Organic Chemistry
2H-Pharmacy
Group 3
Bryan Collantes, Jan Claire Coros, Allen Cruz, Mikhail Cuanzon, Nikka Cuenca, Marc
Dalangin
Extraction of Caffeine from Tea Leaves
Abstract
I.
Introduction
Extraction is a technique based in solubility of a substance to a solvent.
Liquid-liquid extractions are the only kind of extraction performed in the
organic teaching labs. Liquid-liquid means that two liquids are used in the
extraction procedure, this extraction was used in the experiment. The
liquids must be immiscible: this means that they will form two layers when
added together, like an oily (dichloromethane) and aqueous layer (tea).
Tea is an aromatic beverage commonly prepared by pouring hot or boiling
water over cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis, an evergreen shrub
native to Asia. Tea is one of the most common beverage sources of
caffeine in the world. Beverages containing caffeine are ingested to
relieve or prevent drowsiness and to increase one's energy level. Caffeine
is extracted from the plant part containing it for making beverages by
steeping it in water, a process called infusion.
Some components of tea leaves are cellulose, chlorophyll, flavonoid,
tannins and CNS acting alkaloids like caffeine, nicotine, cocaine and
morphine.
II.
Methodology
The students used an extraction set-up to perform the extraction of
caffeine from tea leaves. The clamps and iron stand were first prepared for
it is where the separatory funnel will be secured tightly. Then 4.4 g of
anhydrous sodium carbonate is dissolved in a 500ml beaker with 100 ml
of water. After dissolving 5 teabags worth 10g of tea leaves will then be
added to the mixture. It will then be covered and boiled for 10 minutes.
After boiling the teabags were removed after squeezing the contents and
cooled at room temperature. The group performed single extraction so
60ml of dichloromethane was then added at once in the separatory funnel
together with the tea solution. The mixture was then shaken to mix the
contents together. The mixture was frequently vented to avoid the
pressure buildup of the dichloromethane. Let the mixture stand and after
the 2 layers are clearly visible , the lower layer will then be drained into
the Erlenmeyer flask. In another Erlenmeyer flask half a spatula of
anhydrous sodium sulfate was added, the extract was then added to the
flask. The flask was then decanted into a tared evaporating dish and then
evaporated to dryness. The residue that was recovered is the caffeine
extract. The result was then recorded into data and analyzed.
III.
Results and Discussions
The Setup that is shown in the picture is for Extraction. Now as compared
to the Single
Extraction, Multiple Extraction is more
efficient as
compared to the other because when a
solute
is
being extracted from an aqueous phase using an
organic
solvent, a better recovery will be
obtained
by using two equal volumes of
solvent than the recovery that would be
obtained using all the solvent in
one
large
volume.
Anhydrous
Sodium Carbonate was added to
the tea to make the water more
basic to attract the tannins instead
of
the
caffeine. Dichloromethane was used as a
solvent because caffeine is more soluble here. The mixture was mixed
evenly to extract the organic layer. The mixture was frequently vented to
avoid the buildup of pressure due to dichloromethanes volatile nature.
The aqueous layer (upper) is the water with tea whereas the organic layer
(lower) is the dichloromethane with caffeine. Dichloromethane is in the
lower area because its density is 1.33g/ml compared to waters density
which is 1.0g/ml.
The photo on the lower right is the finished extraction of the organic layer.
The bubbles seen on the photo due to mixing and
shaking is not included in the extract due to
contamination. The Erlenmeyer flask is then
covered to avoid the escape of the extract. It is
then transferred to a flask with Anhydrous Sodium
Sulfate which is a reagent used to absorb excess
water mixed with the organic sample. Since
dichloromethane is volatile by nature, the extract
is then left to dry in an evaporating dish.
The data are as follows.
Weight of tea leaves: 10.0g
Weight of Evaporating dish + caffeine: 145.7g
Weight of empty evaporating dish: 144g
Weight of Caffeine: 1.70g
Using the Formula:
recovered=
g of caffeine
100
total g sample
1.7 g of caffeine
100=17 recovered
10 g of tealeaves
The group was able to derive 17% of caffeine from 10g of tea leaves using
the single extraction method
IV.
References
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