Abstract

It is well documented that caffeine is the world's most widely consumed drug with its main source found in coffee. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), diabetes and obesity are major health problems. Caffeine is attested as a potential drug for treating obesity, hepatic fibrosis, and preventing or delaying diabetes. The aim of this work is to evaluate the caffeine content of the Arabian coffee in comparison to Turkish coffee and instant coffee, in order to better adjust daily caffeine consumption. All types of coffee were prepared based on traditional ways in KSA. The average consumed coffee per normal person is assumed to be, 6 Arabian, 2 Nescafe or 1 Turkish cups per day. High performance liquid chromatography technique was used for caffeine measurement using paracetamol as an internal standard. Generally, coffee is prepared with other additives, liquid-liquid extraction was used for the extraction caffeine and paracetamol as an internal standard. HPLC method validated was over the range of 1 to 100 μg with good linearity (r²=0.991). Validation data proved that the method is accurate with average of 102%. Caffeine contents of Arabian coffee, Nescafe®, and Turkish coffee were found to be 4.1, 43.4 and 82.8 mg/cup, respectively. One cup of Turkish coffee contains caffeine as much as 2 Nescafe® and 20 Arabian cups. Gold Nescafe® contains about 20% less caffeine than classic. The caffeine content of each type of marketed coffee was accurately measured. An individual Arabian coffee consumer, who is drinking an average of 6 cups/day, can safely increase the number of cups or cup size in order to obtain more caffeine. The other choice for increasing caffeine ingestion is to think of Turkish coffee and/or Nescafe® as a substitute, in order to maintain caffeine at a therapeutic range for better health.

Key words: Caffeine, Arabian coffee, Turkish coffee, Nescafe®, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).