Differences in caffeine content in various coffee beverages

Peter Sova

Bachelor's thesis

Abstract:

Coffee is the most frequently used caffeinated drink worldwide. Caffeine, as a main psychoactive substance, has various effects on its consumers and affects physiological and psychological processes in human and animal organisms, therefore research is still very important. Aims of theoretical part of this thesis was to describe and summarize the most economically important species of genus Coffea spp., the most common types of coffee preparation, caffeine as a chemical substance synthesised by plants, its metabolism and sources of caffeine, effects of caffeine ingestion on human physical and psychical health and possible consequences resulting from excessive ingestion of substance.In practical part, research of the coffee, that is sold all around the campus of the Czech University of Life Sciences (CZU) in Prague, took place. Research was inspired by similar analysis, that took place in Scotland, United Kingdom. For analyses of espresso samples obtained at CZU, high performance liquid chromatography was used. Caffeine content varied from 55.36 to 150.61 mg of substance per serving, 61.09 to 931.56 mg of caffeine per 100 ml respectively. A lot of students and professors drink coffee on a daily basis and therefore, over-ingestion of caffeine is possible. With plausible side effects, whether negative or positive, it might be easy to reach daily maximum advised amounts of caffeine in the bloodstream, ergo knowing the levels of substance was essential.

Keywords

HPLC-DAD, caffeine, human health, espresso, Coffea spp., coffee

Jazyk práce: English

Datum vytvoření / odevzdání či podání práce: 15. 5. 2020

Obhajoba závěrečné práce

• Vedúci: Ing. Olga Leuner, Ph.D.

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences

Bachelor programme / odbor:
Agricultural Specialization / Agriculture in Tropics and Subtropics