Background Information:
Caffeine is a bitter white crystalline xanthine alkaloid that acts as a psychoactive stimulant drug. A German chemist, Friedrich Ferdinand Runge, discovered it in 1819. Plants produce caffeine as an insecticide. It is found in varying quantities in the beans, leaves, and fruit of over 60 plants, where it acts as a natural pesticide that paralyses and kills certain insects feeding on the plants.
Cocoa in South America, coffee in Africa and tea in Asia has all been used for hundreds of years to produce ‘pick me ups’ containing caffeine. These days caffeine is also used as a flavour enhancer in a wide range of cola and other soft drinks. In addition, it has medicinal uses in aspirin …show more content…
Beverages containing caffeine, such as coffee, tea, soft drinks and energy drinks enjoy great popularity. Caffeine is the world's most widely consumed psychoactive substance, but unlike most others, it is legal and unregulated in nearly all jurisdictions.
In North America, 90% of adults consume caffeine daily. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration lists caffeine as a "Multiple Purpose Generally Recognized as Safe Food Substance". One 2008 study suggested that women consuming 200 milligrams or more of caffeine per day had about twice the miscarriage risk as women who had none, while another 2008 study found no link between miscarriage and caffeine consumption. At high levels of consumption caffeine has been linked to restlessness, insomnia and anxiety, causing raised stress and blood pressure. This can lead to heart and circulation …show more content…
|Concentration caffeine |Trial 1 |Trial 2 |Trial 3 |Average |
|(%) | | | | |
|0.1 |49 |57 |65 |57 |
|0.2 |94 |84 |92 |90 |
|0.3 |78 |77 |79 |79 |
|0.4 | | | |100 |
|0.5 |110 |118 |104 |111 |
|0.6 |97 |103 |101 |100.3 |
|1 |139 |127 |142 |136 |
| | | | | |
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