{"id":3902,"date":"2022-11-09T19:22:13","date_gmt":"2022-11-09T18:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modafinil.pl\/?post_type=product&p=3902"},"modified":"2026-10-06T13:02:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T11:02:07","slug":"caffeine","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/modafinil.pl\/en\/sklep\/caffeine\/","title":{"rendered":"Caffeine (CAS 58-08-2) \u2014 Chemical Reagent 1000 mg, Purity \u2265 99.97%"},"content":{"rendered":"

1,3,7-trimethylpurine-2,6-dione<\/strong> (1,3,7-trimethylxanthine), a white, fluffy crystalline powder, 1000 mg package. Material intended exclusively for in vitro laboratory and analytical research<\/strong>. The product is not intended for consumption by humans or animals<\/strong>, is not a medicinal product, dietary supplement, food, or cosmetic.<\/p>\n

The thing that needs to be said up front<\/h2>\n

Caffeine is the opposite case to flmodafinil<\/a>, for which the lack of literature was the problem. Here the problem is its abundance: the PubMed database returns tens of thousands of papers on caffeine, including a vast corpus of clinical studies in humans on its effects on the body. This description deliberately does not draw on that corpus<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The reason is the same as for every other item in this catalog: clinical studies on caffeine were conducted in the context of food or a registered medicinal product<\/strong> \u2014 never using unlabeled analytical material of laboratory purity, sold without pharmaceutical oversight or food safety standards. Transferring conclusions from those studies to the reagent offered here would be an error of the same kind, regardless of how extensive the source literature is.<\/p>\n

This description is therefore limited to what can reliably be said about the molecule as a chemical object<\/strong>: its structure, its origin in the plant world, the history of its isolation and synthesis, its analytical behavior, and its regulatory status. The literature cited below concerns only these areas \u2014 plant biochemistry, analytical methods, and the forensic\/anti-doping context \u2014 not clinical pharmacology.<\/p>\n

Three different entities that must not be confused<\/h2>\n

With caffeine, separating the layers is more complex than for the other items in our catalog, because the same molecule functions simultaneously as a legal food ingredient<\/strong>, an active substance of registered medicines<\/strong>, and a chemical reagent<\/strong>. Four contexts, four different legal regimes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Separating the layers: substance \u2014 food \u2014 medicinal product \u2014 reagent<\/caption>\n
Entity<\/th>\nWhat it is<\/th>\nLegal regime<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Chemical substance
caffeine, CAS 58-08-2<\/th>\n		A chemical concept \u2014 a purine alkaloid of defined structure. On its own it is not subject to any regime; status is conferred only by the form and context in which it occurs.<\/td>\n\u2014<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Food and beverage products
coffee, tea, guarana drinks, chocolate products<\/th>\n		A natural plant constituent, present in coffee beans, tea leaves, guarana seeds, and cocoa beans. Consumed in this form for centuries.<\/td>\nfood law provisions (labeling, maximum levels in energy drinks) \u2014 not provisions on chemical reagents<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Medicinal product
including Coffeinum, combination preparations with ergotamine or paracetamol<\/th>\n		Active substance of registered medicines: a defined pharmaceutical form, manufacturing under pharmaceutical GMP, registration documentation.<\/td>\nthe pharmacological and clinical literature concerns this entity<\/strong> \u2014 deliberately omitted from this description (see section above)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Chemical reagent
the material offered here<\/th>\n		Material for laboratory and analytical work, with a declared purity of \u2265 99.97%. It has no approval for use in humans or animals, nor food status<\/strong> \u2014 it is not subject to food safety standards or pharmaceutical GMP.<\/td>\nanalytics, chemistry, reference standards<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The consequence is unambiguous.<\/strong> The widespread availability of caffeine in coffee or tea does not mean<\/strong> that the analytical reagent offered here has any food or pharmaceutical status. It is a raw material of declared chemical purity, without food labeling, without stability studies for food applications, and without medicinal product registration documentation. The material is not the form in which the substance is customarily consumed or administered to humans, and cannot be used in that way.<\/p>\n

Reagent identification card<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Registry data and identifiers \u2014 caffeine<\/caption>\n
Systematic name (IUPAC)<\/th>\n1,3,7-trimethylpurine-2,6-dione<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Common name<\/th>\ncaffeine<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
CAS number<\/th>\n58-08-2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Molecular formula<\/th>\nC8<\/sub>H10<\/sub>N4<\/sub>O2<\/sub><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Molar mass<\/th>\n194.19 g\u00b7mol\u22121<\/sup><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
InChIKey<\/th>\nRYYVLZVUVIJVGH-UHFFFAOYSA-N<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
SMILES<\/th>\nCn1cnc2c1c(=O)n(c(=O)n2C)C<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
PubChem CID<\/th>\n2519<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Melting point<\/th>\n235\u2013238 \u00b0C<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Form<\/th>\nwhite, fluffy crystalline powder<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Packaging<\/th>\n1000 mg, sealed aluminum sachet<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Purity<\/th>\n\u2265 99.97%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Intended use<\/th>\nresearch reagent \u2014 not for consumption by humans or animals<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Pedigree of the molecule: a purine alkaloid from leaves, beans, and nuts<\/h2>\n

Caffeine, unlike the other items in our catalog, is not the product of laboratory synthesis designed from scratch. It is a natural secondary metabolite<\/strong>, produced independently by several dozen plant species from distant evolutionary lineages \u2014 from coffee beans (Coffea arabica<\/em>, Coffea canephora<\/em>), through tea leaves (Camellia sinensis<\/em>), to cocoa seeds, guarana seeds (Paullinia cupana<\/em>), and kola nuts. This convergence is chemically interesting in itself: these plants independently evolved the same trimethyl derivative of xanthine as a natural defense against pests.<\/p>\n

From purine to three methyl groups<\/h3>\n

The backbone of caffeine is purine<\/strong> \u2014 a bicyclic heterocyclic system built from fused pyrimidine and imidazole rings, the same system that forms the nitrogenous bases adenine and guanine in nucleic acids. Biosynthesis proceeds from xanthosine<\/strong> through successive methylations and one deglycosylation: xanthosine \u2192 7-methylxanthine \u2192 theobromine \u2192 caffeine. This pathway was enzymatically described by Suzuki and Takahashi using tea-leaf extracts, directly demonstrating the formation of theobromine from 7-methylxanthine and of caffeine from theobromine [1<\/a>]. Later work by Ashihara’s team extended this picture to catabolism, defensive function, and attempts at genetic engineering of plants with reduced alkaloid content [2<\/a>][3<\/a>].<\/p>\n

Guarana, tea, cocoa \u2014 the same molecule from different plants<\/h3>\n

The common name guaranine<\/strong>, one of the historical names for caffeine, derives directly from guarana nuts, in which the alkaloid’s concentration is exceptionally high. Studies on caffeine synthase in guarana fruit [5<\/a>] and comparative work on coffee species with naturally low caffeine content [4<\/a>] show that the capacity for biosynthesis of this alkaloid is regulated very precisely in the plant world \u2014 some Coffea<\/em> species produce it only in trace amounts, others in amounts many times higher.<\/p>\n

It entered European chemical awareness in 1819\u20131820, when the German chemist Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge isolated it from coffee beans \u2014 according to an anecdote well established in the history of chemistry, at the suggestion of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The full structure and the first total synthesis were established at the end of the 19th century by Emil Fischer, whose work on purine derivatives, alongside his research on sugars, was honored with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1902. These facts concern the history of chemistry only<\/strong> and are not a reference to the use of the offered material.<\/p>\n

Timeline<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Timeline: from isolation to modern analytics<\/caption>\n
1819\u20131820<\/th>\nisolation of caffeine from coffee beans by Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
end of the 19th c.<\/th>\nstructure elucidation and first total synthesis (Emil Fischer); work on purine derivatives honored with the Nobel Prize in 1902<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1975<\/th>\nenzymatic demonstration of the biosynthetic pathway: 7-methylxanthine \u2192 theobromine \u2192 caffeine in tea-leaf extracts [1<\/a>]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1999<\/th>\nstudies of biosynthesis and catabolism in low-caffeine Coffea<\/em> species [4<\/a>]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
until 2004<\/th>\ncaffeine on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) list of banned substances<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2004<\/th>\nremoval of caffeine from the WADA banned list and transfer to the monitoring program; ESI-MS method for quantitative determination of methylxanthines in equine doping control [11<\/a>]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2008\u20132017<\/th>\nAshihara’s review work on the biosynthesis and function of purine alkaloids in plants [2<\/a>][3<\/a>]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2011<\/th>\nassessment of the prevalence of caffeine use among athletes after the WADA ban was lifted [10<\/a>]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2014<\/th>\ncharacterization of caffeine synthase in guarana fruit [5<\/a>]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2016<\/th>\ncertification of caffeine reference material purity by two independent methods [7<\/a>]; structure\u2013activity review of methylxanthines [9<\/a>]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2018<\/th>\nvalidation of an HPLC method for determining caffeine in Coffea arabica<\/em> [6<\/a>]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2019<\/th>\ncaffeine as one of the markers in the analysis of “cutting” agents in seized cocaine samples by GC-MS\/LC-MS\/MS [12<\/a>]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2025<\/th>\nvalidation of a “green” HPLC-DAD method for methylxanthine analysis [8<\/a>]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Two strands of the literature: plant biochemistry and forensic analytics<\/h2>\n

The literature cited in this description falls into two clearly distinct strands. The first is plant biochemistry<\/strong> \u2014 a long-running research program, largely associated with the work of Hiroshi Ashihara and collaborators, describing the biosynthetic pathway of purine alkaloids in tea, coffee, guarana, and related species [1]\u2013[5]. The second is forensic and anti-doping analytics<\/strong>, in which caffeine is treated not as the subject of study but as an analytical marker<\/strong> for identification and quantitative determination in a complex matrix \u2014 whether in equine doping control [11<\/a>], or as a typical “cutting” agent in seized drug samples [12<\/a>][13<\/a>]. It is this second strand that gives the practical justification for why analytical and forensic laboratories need a reference material of confirmed, high purity.<\/p>\n

Chemistry: a purine alkaloid, no chirality, and three methyl groups<\/h2>\n

Why caffeine has no stereogenic center<\/h3>\n

Unlike modafinil<\/a>, where the stereogenic center lies on the sulfoxide sulfur atom, the caffeine skeleton is flat and fully symmetric with respect to chirality<\/strong> \u2014 it is a fused purine system with three methyl substituents at nitrogens N1, N3, and N7, with no atom bearing four different substituents. Caffeine therefore does not occur as enantiomers and does not require chiral separation, unlike many other items in our catalog, where a chiral column is a necessary condition for full characterization of the material.<\/p>\n

Three methyl groups, three different molecules<\/h3>\n

Caffeine (1,3,7-trimethylxanthine) belongs to the methylxanthine<\/strong> family together with theobromine (3,7-dimethylxanthine, the main alkaloid of cocoa beans) and theophylline (1,3-dimethylxanthine, independently registered as the active substance of bronchodilator drugs). The difference between these three molecules comes down solely to the number and position of the methyl substituents on the same purine skeleton \u2014 yet each has a distinct CAS number, distinct applications, and a distinct analytical profile. Distinguishing them in a complex matrix, for example in an equine urine sample collected for doping control, requires methods that differentiate mass or retention time, not mere detection of a “purine alkaloid” signal \u2014 precisely this issue was described by Thevis and collaborators using an ESI-MS method with isotopically labeled analogues [11<\/a>], and a review of the structure\u2013activity relationships of the entire methylxanthine family was presented by Monteiro and collaborators [9<\/a>].<\/p>\n

Physicochemical characterization<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Computed descriptors and their analytical significance<\/caption>\n
Parameter<\/th>\nValue<\/th>\nWhat it means<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Partition coefficient (XLogP)<\/th>\n\u22120.07<\/td>\na practically hydrophilic substance \u2014 elutes early in RP-HPLC relative to most other items in the catalog<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Topological polar surface area<\/th>\n58.44 \u00c52<\/sup><\/td>\nmoderate; arises from the three carbonyl-amide groups of the purine system<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Hydrogen bond donors<\/th>\n0<\/td>\nno N\u2013H or O\u2013H groups capable of donation \u2014 all nitrogens are substituted or participate in the ring<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Hydrogen bond acceptors<\/th>\n6<\/td>\ntwo carbonyl oxygens and four nitrogens of the purine ring<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Solubility<\/th>\ngood in water and methanol, markedly better at elevated temperature; weaker in nonpolar solvents<\/td>\nunlike most items in the catalog \u2014 stock solutions can be prepared in water<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Nomenclature and synonyms<\/h2>\n

Caffeine is one of the few items in our catalog for which the names in circulation are not accidental transliteration variants, but reflect different historical contexts and different source plants:<\/p>\n