Simultaneous high performance liquid chromatographic determination of xanthines in tea, coffee and cola type beverages

The analytical utility of HPLC for identification and determination of caffeine, theophylline and theobromine in 20 samples of tea, coffee and cola- like beverages was described. The objective was to develop a simple accurate method for the simultaneous determination of xanthines. The caffeine content in tea samples was ranging from 18.6 +/- 0.3 to 27.9 +/- 0.8 mg/mg theophylline 0.2 +/- 0.005 to 1.3 +/- 0.05 mg/gm and theobromine 2.5 +/- 0.1 to 4.6 +/- 0.15 mg/gm. In case of coffee, only caffeine is present 5.2 +/- 0.1 to 19.8 +/- 0.2 mg/gm. In case of cacao, the three xanthines are present, but theobromine is the higher content from 4.3 +/- 0.1 to 16 +/- 0.3 mg/gm. In case of soft drinks, caffeine is only present from 15.75 +/- 0.35 to 25.74 +/- 0.52 mg/can