Development and Validation of Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography (UPLC) Method for the Quantitative Estimation of Caffeine in Non-Alcoholic Soft and Energy Drinks

Abstract

Background The popularity of beverages like cold coffee, Ice tea and energy drinks has tremendously rise among athletes and youths. Energy drinks are used to enhance performance due to the presence of high amount of caffeine and sugars, also other constituents like; vitamins, amino acids, taurine, extracts of Ginkgo biloba, ginseng, guarana and other herbal products. Commercial drinks are promoted as being beneficial to health; conversely, thus it is important concern regarding adverse effects linked with these drinks or products. Objective The aim of the study is to develop and validate Ultra performance liquid chromatography (UPLC-PDA) method for the estimation of caffeine (CFN) in eight marketed non-alcoholic drinks including 2 soft drinks and 6 energy drinks. Methods The chromatographic separation of CFN was achieved on Acquity UPLC® CSHTM C18 1.7 µm, 2.1 × 100 mm column, using isocratic mode, mobile phase comprising acetonitrile and water (30:70, v/v) at flow rate 0.3 mL/min using injection volume 1 µL. Results The elution of CFN occurred at 1.06 min and calibration curve of the CFN was computed from the peak area ratio detected at 273 nm. All the validation para meters were found within the assay variability limits as per ICH guidelines. The obtained results revealed that the soft drinks SD1 and SD2 have 87.21 ± 1.28 and 101.81 ± 1.52% (w/w), whereas CFN concentration in energy drink brands ED1, ED2, ED3, ED4, ED5, and ED6 were 95.90 ± 1.62, 64.0 ± 1.07, 76.68 ± 1.95, 74.97 ± 2.33, 82.09 ± 2.43, and 88.04 ± 2.94% (w/w) of labelled claims, respectively. Conclusions The developed UPLC method was found suitable for the quality control of commercial soft and energy drinks containing caffeine content.

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