Extract caffine from coffee beans / tea leaves

[phr34k]

i was wonderin in there was an eaisy way to extract caffeine from coffee or tea. i read aroun and there was 3 methods of doing this one of which involved water, but I am not too sure how i can get the caffine by it self?

can anyone give me a step-by-step?

thanks
phr

 

[gravenewworld]

I imagine all you would have to do is an extraction followed up by an evaporation of an organic solvent. I would probably try taking some coffee and add some NaCO3 followed by adding some DCM. after swirling the solution I would funnel off the bottom layer, which should be the DCM layer and which should contain the caffeine. I would then take the DCM layer and dry it over some magnesium sulfate to get all the rest of the water out. Then after you evaporate off the DCM you should have isolated some caffeine.

 

[Cesium]

Yes, dichloromethane was used industrially to extract caffine from coffee to make it decafinated. This method is no longer used because of health risks.

 

[Genecks]

Drink it...

 

[ShawnD]

The water one you're talking about is passing superheated steam through finely ground coffee. The common name for this is "espresso".