EXPERIMENT 1

ISOLATION OF CAFFEINE FROM A TEA BAG.

OBJECTIVE
To extract caffeine from a tea bag.

INTRODUCTION
In this experiment, caffeine is isolated from a tea solution. Caffeine is an analgesic drug that
increases the heart rate. It exists naturally in especially tea and coffee. Caffeine constitutes as
much as 5% by weight of the leaf material in tea bags.

Molecular structure of caffeine

Extraction process selectively dissolves one or more of the mixture compounds into a suitable
solvent. The solution of these dissolved compounds is referred to as the extract.for this
experiment , Organic solvent methylene chloride is used to extract caffeine from an aqueous
extract of tea leaves because caffeine is more soluble in methylene chloride than in water.

Caffeine is also known as 1,3,7 trimethylxanthine. Caffeine constitutes as much as 5% of the

weight of the leaf material in tea plant. Tea leaf are made up of cellulose and chlorophylls.
Oxidized flavenoid pigments and chlorophylls basically give the brown color of the tea.
In this experiment, we will be extracting pure caffeine from a tea bag using methylene chloride.
Although chlorophylls are soluble in methylene chloride, most other substances in tea are not.
Thus, the methylene chloride extraction of the basic tea solution removes nearly pure caffeine.
The methylene chloride is easily removed by evaporation (b.p of methylene chloride is 40C) to
leave the crude caffeine. The caffeine can then be purified by sublimation.

MATERIAL

100 ml beaker

Cotton

Conical flask

Round bottom flask

Separatory funnel

Hot plate

CHEMICAL SUBTANCES

50ml water

Sodium carbonate, Na2CO3

Methylene chloride

Anhydrous sodium sulphate ,NaSO4

PROCEDURE
A. PREPARING TEA SOLUTION.
1. About 50 ml of water is poured into a beaker and was heated on a hot plate until
boil.
2. Tea bag is placed inside the beaker and tea bag is ensured that lie flat on the
bottom of beaker.
B. EXTRACTION OF CAFFEINE.
1. The hot tea solution was transfer into a small conical flask then about 0.5g of
sodium carbonate was edded.
2. Then the hot solution is filter into a small separatory funnel by using cotton.
3. About 15ml of methylene chloride is added to the separatory funnel , which
immediately form two layers.
4. The lower layer of the mixture is drained off after gently shaking it and 10 ml of
fresh methylene chloride is added.
5. The re-addition of methylene chloride was repeated twice to ensure maximum
extraction of caffeine .
6. The combined methylene chloride is dried using anhydrous sodium sulphate.
7. Then, the dried methylene chloride solution is transferred into a pre-weighed
small round bottomed flask and was evaporated using the rotary-evaporator.

RESULT/CALCULATION
No

Mass (g)

Tea bag

2.3817

Sodium carbonate, NaCO3

0.5186

Round bottom flask initial

56.0125

Round bottom flask final

56.0548

Caffeine (mass of RBF final- mass of RBF initial)

= 56.0748-56.0125
=0.0623

Mass of caffeine=0.6203g
Mass of tea bag=2.3817g

=1.7%

DISCUSSION
The purpose of this experiment was to extract caffeine, an analgesic drug naturally formed from
tea leaves.to separate the caffeine in this experiment , we used methylene chloride. This is
because it is denser than water, which is good because it will make it easier to extract. Caffeine
also more soluble in methylene chloride than water. In addition , the other natural substances
from tea leaves is also soluble in water which is later is more hard to purify the caffeine.
The mass of caffeine that we obtained from this experiment is 0.0423g. and percentage that we
get is 1.7% .as stated by lipton which is type of tea that we used, it supposed to have about
55mg per tea bag. This is slightly different from our result. This is because the extraction must
be more efficient. Some amount of caffeine might had been in cotton filter or tea bag.

CONCLUSION
The caffeine is successfully isolated from a bag of tea leaves. The mass of caffeine is 0.0423g
and it percent is 1.7%.

REFERENCES
1. Engel, Lapman, Pavia, & Krizz. (n.d.). Intrioduction to organic laboratory technique a
small scale approach (3rd ed., p. 498). Cole publication.
2. http://www.caffeineinformer.com/caffeine-content/lipton-tea

QUESTIONS
1.

Organic layer
Make a tea solution

(Drained off to save)

Organic layer
Aqueous layer

(Drained off to save)

Organic layer
Aqueous layer

(Drained off to save)

Aqueous layer
(not necessary)

Aqueous layer

Organic layer

(not necessary)

residue
caffeine

2. Sodium carbonate was added to the solution because, when tennis are extracted
into water, some of the compounds are partially hydrolyze to form acid. Therefore,
the addition of sodium carbonate helps the acid to convert to their sodium salts
which are highly soluble in water.

3. The green tinge color is due to the chlorophylls pigments and the respective
oxidation product.

4. This may because of the isolated caffeine produced by the experiment was
containing other elements which cause the caffeine not 100% pure. Thus, lower
the melting point of the caffeine.

5. At atmospheric pressure, more heat is needed for the sublimation reaction. As

more heat is absorbed, it will be an imperfect separation. For a good separation,
the lower the pressure is needed.