ISOLATION OF CAFFEINE FROM GREEN TEA LEAVES WASTE (CAMELLIA SINENSIS (L.) KUNTZE)

• Main Author: Utami, Rizkiki
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/73624
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

One of the main plantation commodities in Indonesia is tea or Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze. Based on data from the Badan Pusat Statistik, West Java is the main producer of tea leaves in Indonesia which are used as raw materials for manufacturing drinks, food, or cosmetics so that the unused part of the tea leaves is wasted from the production of tea leaves. There are many secondary metabolites in tea leaves waste, one of which is caffeine, so that tea leaves waste can be reused for isolation. Tea leaves waste is a raw material that is quite easy to obtain from the tea processing industry, so isolating caffeine from it can be done as an alternative to obtain caffeine as a raw material for medicine. Several previous studies have isolated tea leaves waste using subcritical water extraction, liquid-liquid extraction, and steam explosion-assisted extraction methods. Therefore, in this study, caffeine was isolated from tea leaves waste by sublimation method. Tea leaves waste was obtained from by-product of green tea leaves production at the Pusat Penelitian Teh dan Kina, in Gambung, West Java. The sublimation method was chosen because it was relatively inexpensive, did not produce a lot of waste, and fast. In addition, caffeine was easy to sublimate and heat-resistant so it was suitable for sublimation. Tea waste contained 0.13% ± 0.0017 caffeine which was detected using TLC-densitometry. The results showed that caffeine sublimed at 190°C. The isolate was obtained from sublimation and the result was 0,84% yield with 91.88% purity relative to the caffeine standard. The purity test had been done with single-development TLC and two-dimensional TLC showed only one spot. The isolate characterization had been done with TLC specific reagent and infrared spectrophotometry showed that the isolate was caffeine.