Schnelle gaschromatographische Coffeinbestimmung in coffeinhaltigem und coffeinfreiem Kaffee mit dem Stickstoffdetektor

First-derivative spectrophotometric and gas-liquid chromatographic determination of caffeine in foods and pharmaceuticals. I. Rapid determination of caffeine in coffee, tea and soft drinks

A simple and rapid spectrophotometric method is described for the determination of caffeine in coffee, tea and soft drinks. To exclude the irrelevant absorptions, due to the presence of some accompanying naturally occurring ingredients in the analysed multicomponent drinks, the derivative method is found to be superior. Another gas-liquid chromatographic (GLC) procedure for the quantitation of the analeptic agent, in bulk form and in the same drinks, is also investigated. The recovery testing of the proposed methods gives good percentage mean recoveries with relatively low deviations. The results of the methods described are compared with those obtained by direct UV-spectrophotometry as well as by applying an official pharmacopoeial procedure for caffeine.

[A quantitative micromethod for the caffeine determination (author's transl)]

A combined procedure with thin-layer-chromatography and densitometry is described for the quantitative estimation of caffeine in biological material. This method is applicable in the nanogram range. Test samples of less than 100 microliter may be used. The samples (capillary-blood) are extracted with the same volume of chloroform. Caffeine is separated from interfering compounds by thinlayer-chromatography. Commercial silica-60-plates with chloroform/acetone (9+1; v/v) as solvent are used. The running time is about 30 min. The quantitative densitometric determinations are performed in the remission mode at 273 nm. In the range from 10 to 60 ng/spot the calibration curve is linear. Accurate quantitative data will be obtained even at concentrations of 1 mg/l caffeine. The detection limit is at about 0.1 mg/l.

Quantitative thin-layer chromatographic analysis of ergotamine tartrate and caffeine in the nanogram range

Direct, quantitative, thin-layer chromatographic methods for the determination of ergotamine tartrate and caffeine in the presence of each other in blood and in pharmaceutical preparations are described. The blood is centrifuged, the plasma decanted from the coagulum and deproteinized with acetone-methanol. After removal of the solvent mixture, the active ingredients are extracted from the remaining aqueous solution with chloroform. In the case of the pharmaceutical preparations, the active ingredients are also extracted with chloroform or methanol. Ergotamine tartrate and caffeine are separated on pre-coated silica gel 60 F254 plates and measured directly on the thin-layer plate, ergotamine tartrate being determined by the fluorescence method, excitation wavelength 365 nm, at lambdamax.=450 nm and caffeine by the reflactance method at lambdamax.=274 nm. The analytical methods are suitable for the bioavailability studies of these drugs in blood as they enable the determination of 20 ng ergotamine tartrate with a coefficient of variation of 6.7% and the determination of 200 ng caffeine with a coefficient of variation of 6.1%. The methods have also proved useful in the determination of the active ingredients of drug forms such as tablets and suppositories and can be well reproduced with a maximum coefficient of variation of 4.9% for ergotamine tartrate and 3.5% for caffeine.

Rapid and sensitive gas chromatographic determination of diacetylmorphine and its metabolite monoacetylmorphine in blood using a nitrogen detector

A quantitative gas chromatographic method for the determination of plasma concentrations of diacetylmorphine and its metabolite monacetylmorphine using an alkali flane detector (nitrogen detector) is described. Plasma samples (pH 9.0) containing ethylmorphine acetate as internal standard are extracted with benzene. The dried benzene extracts are analysed as their corresponding acetylated derivatives following treatment with trifluoroacetic anhydride-benzent (1:5). The nitrogen detector permits quantitation of narcotic levels down to 100ng/ml with detection as low as 20 ng/ml. The higher sensitivity and selectivity of the nitrogen detector are compared to those obtained in flame ionization detection. Species differences in the rate of conversion of diacetylmorphine to monacetylmorphine in vitro in blood are also presented.