Abstract
The effectiveness of three different caffeine extraction methods were used on commercially available tea types in Romania were compared. An HPLC-MS/MS system was used to perform the separation of the caffeine from matrix components, and the quantitative analysis. To improve the precision of the analysis, pentoxifylline was used as a novel internal standard in the process. The simple hot water extraction was compared to an organic solvent and a sodium benzoate-based eco-friendly method. Although all three methods extracted a significant amount of caffeine, the methanol-based process generally showed the best results, where extracted caffeine content varied between 21 and 36 mg/g of dried tea leaves. It was also concluded that the amount of extracted caffeine can differ greatly between methods with no clear tendency in their effectiveness, pointing to a significant effect from the physical characteristics of the tea leaves such as size, granulation and packaging style.
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