Extraction of caffeine and sodium benzoate from different brands of cold drinks available in market

Abstract

Caffeine is an alkaloid present in beverages and soft drinks that are available on the market. It belongs to the methylxanthine family. An acceptable daily intake (ADI) of caffeine is 0.4-1.4 mg/kg of body weight for adolescents (10-18 years). It has an instant psychoactive effect on our minds. It has the ability to put off sleep, increase alertness, and improve attention in studies. Besides these effects, it brings various health concerns with it. It disturbs the sleep cycle and leads to different types of diseases, such as osteoporosis and several types of cancer. On the other hand, sodium benzoate is often used as a preservative in soft drinks to prevent decomposition by undesirable changes. An acceptable daily intake (ADI) of sodium benzoate is 0-5 mg/kg of body weight. But daily intake can develop adverse effects on the skin, such as rash, non-immunological contact urticaria, metabolic acidosis, and asthma. So, the determination of caffeine and sodium benzoate in soft drinks is important from a biological point of view, as such drinks are very common among youth. In this work, the presence of caffeine and sodium benzoate was determined in different brands of cold drinks available on the market. There are many techniques for their determination, but the present work has been done by liquid-liquid extraction of caffeine and sodium benzoate. A qualitative analysis of the extracted caffeine was done by the murexide test. A qualitative analysis of the extracted sodium benzoate was performed with the FeCl₃Test. Further, quantitative analysis of sodium benzoate was done via acid-alkalimetry. The analysis performed showed that Sting has the highest caffeine content as well as sodium benzoate, while no caffeine was extracted from Sprite. Rev was found to contain the least sodium benzoate.

URN:NBN:sciencein.jmc.2024.695