Rapid high-performance thin layer chromatographic quantitative estimation of caffeine in various foods and beverages

Caffeine is an alkaloid and well-known CNS stimulant usually added in most foods and beverages. Caffeine had drawn more attention in many nutritional products due to its stimulant effect on CNS, so that the product to which caffeine is added becomes more popular in the market. The present work was carried out to extract and estimate the amount of caffeine in the various food and beverages by chromatography technique using High-Performance Thin Layer Chromatography. Procured marketed products like confectioneries, foods and beverages are subjected for extraction and estimated the caffeine content by HPTLC method by using mobile phase Ethyl acetate: Methanol (9: 1) and quantified. Monster and Tzinga both energy drinks showed the content within the label claim (23.96 and 25.43% respectively). However other products though they did not have a label claim, showed significant caffeine content, in that dark chocolate showed the highest 11.40%, whereas diet coke did not show any caffeine content. The consumable food products like biscuits, energy drinks, and other beverages with added caffeine should have quantitative labeling on the wrapper to help the consumer to know about the caffeine. But label claim of caffeine is missing on some products, HPTLC method helps to estimate the caffeine content from the marketed products.