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Caffeine and Niacin Levels in Energy Drinks

Caffeine and Niacin Levels in Energy Drinks. By: Liz Knisley & Kelley Smith. Background Information. Caffeine toxicity results when a person takes in 250-500 mg of caffeine Symptoms: irritability, nervousness, tremors, and insomnia Caffeine can become lethal when 1000 mg or more is consumed

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Caffeine and Niacin Levels in Energy Drinks

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  1. Caffeine and Niacin Levels in Energy Drinks By: Liz Knisley & Kelley Smith

  2. Background Information • Caffeine toxicity results when a person takes in 250-500 mg of caffeine • Symptoms: irritability, nervousness, tremors, and insomnia • Caffeine can become lethal when 1000 mg or more is consumed • Symptoms: seizures or aspiration • Detrimental effect on epilepsy control • Pregnant women consuming 6 or more cups a day can result in miscarriage or low fetal birth weight

  3. Background Information • Niacin is a lipid-altering drug • Mainly known to decrease cholesterol levels • Main side effect of niacin is flushing of the skin • If 80 mg is consumed at one period of time it increases the risk of muscle damage • Supplements are usually extended release

  4. Purpose and Method • Purpose: to determine whether the amount of caffeine and niacin in a specific energy drink was dangerous to the human body and in what amount. • Method: use the HPLC to test different contents of energy drinks and compare them to standards run of both caffeine and niacin

  5. What We Did… • Ran standards of caffeine and niacin on HPLC • Ran diluted energy drinks to gain spectra that could be compared to the standards • Monster (16 fl. oz.) • Red Bull (8.4 fl. oz.) • 5 Hour Energy (1.93 fl. oz.) • Mt. Dew Kickstart (16 fl. oz.) • Rock Star: energy x2 (16 fl. oz.)

  6. HPLC • Caffeine Standards • 50 ppm, 40 ppm, 30 ppm, 20 ppm, and 10 ppm • Niacin Standards • 50 ppm, 40 ppm, 30 ppm, 20 ppm, and 10 ppm • Energy drinks were all diluted to 1:8

  7. Errors • Ran standards originally to compare caffeine to previous ran standards • Instrument was set to 254 nm • Niacin was not actually 250 mg like it said on bottle • Had to reweigh out the niacin for the stock solution

  8. Set Backs • Originally wanted to make a 1:2 dilution of each energy drink • Spectra did not come close to the standards • Tried to dilute to 1:4 and still was off the chart • Finally a dilution of 1:8 worked • Originally wanted to use taurine but the lab did not carry it

  9. Conclusion • When wanting more for your money Monster and Rockstar (energy x2) are the way to go • Mt. Dew Kickstart comes in second • Red Bull comes in third • 5 hour energy is last • You would have to consume 60.452 Monsters or Rockstar at a consecutive times to die from caffeine intake • 70.517 Mt. Dew Kickstarts • 115.141 Red Bulls • 501.002 5 Hour Energys

  10. Future Work • Test more energy drinks such as NOS that contain warning labels for levels of caffeine • Run less diluted standards of niacin so that we can compare the results • Run other compounds associated with energy drinks such as taurine

  11. Citations Alpert, P. The Health Lowdown on Caffeine. Home Health Care Management Practice. [Online] 2012, 24, 156. http://hhc.sagepub.com/content/24/ 3/156.full.pdf+html (accessed May 09, 2013). Hochholzer, W., Berg, D., Giugliano, R. The Facts Behind Niacin. TherAdvCardiovascDis. [Online] 2011, 5, 227. http://tak.sagepub.com/content/5/5/227 .full.pdf+html (accessed May 09, 2013).

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